


Force of Nature

by themagicalocelot



Category: Batman (Comics), Young Justice (Cartoon), Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Bat Family, Birdflash - Freeform, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Flashbacks, M/M, Multi, Nightmares, Past Relationship(s), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Rebirth, Reunions, Trauma, batfam shenanigans, other characters to be added - Freeform, speedforce
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-14
Updated: 2016-08-18
Packaged: 2018-07-15 02:53:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 28,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7203497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themagicalocelot/pseuds/themagicalocelot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dick Grayson's been going solo as Nightwing for three years, cut off contact for two. Life just hasn't been the same since, well. Since Wally left. After Tim tells him that the team has been dealing with major magnetic rifts from the North and South poles, Dick decides that its time for action. Reuniting with the team feels great, until he finds himself reuniting with someone who he thought he'd lost forever.</p><p>(References to past relationships, rebuilding and learning to love again.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Dick remembers the old days like they were just two steps behind him, a shadow of his own body. Trailing him, latching onto his back even in the dead of night, even when his eyes are closed and the world is silent around him. He remembers his first day the sidekicks got together and formed a team, with all the covert missions, the break-ins, breakouts and everything else in between. Everything kept getting bigger— the team, the missions, the dreams. And then everything came crashing down.

They grew up. Dick went on to the Watchtower with the League, Zatanna joined, the rest stayed. Then, they grew apart. First he grew apart from the original team, then Zatanna, then Barbara, and then the rest of the Justice League. Bruce understood what he had to go through, the fact that he needed time on his own. _I found comfort in solitude, Dick. You will too._ But it’s been three years and comfort was still nowhere to be found. Somewhere along the way he realized that he would never be Bruce. Never be the same type of lone-wolf type that can stick it out in the face of adversity.

He’s faced different types of adversities along the way, sure. Bad guys. Criminals. Secret organizations. Took them all down in one fell swoop. But even then, he’s never truly suffered. Not the same way he did when—

Thunder crackles in the background, and the rain pours down harder. Dick walks faster up the stairs to his apartment block and watches the lightning strike a puddle right behind him. Might as well hit him, he thinks.

He carries the bag of groceries in one hand, fumbling with his keys in the other. Everything is slippery, even the door handle won’t turn properly when he finally gets his hands on it. Perks of coming in through the back door: no one’s there to watch you when you fuck up.

He finally manages to get inside, drops all the bags on the kitchen table and picks up the unopened letters lying on the floor. Bills. Bills. Promotion letter from a Mexican diner. More bills. A letter from Tim. He smiles to himself, the boy insists on writing _letters_ for Christ’s sake. He’s meant to be on no-contact with anyone from the league since the Romani mission that almost killed him, but of course Tim, being Tim, discovered his nesting grounds and decided to write fortnightly letters to him. 

Dick was a little suspicious at first (and shocked), but he’d recognize that immaculate handwriting anywhere. He also missed having people to talk to, running his mouth to criminals and random shopkeepers just isn’t the same as talking to what used to be his family.

_Dickie-dear,_

_Just wanted to fill you in on what’s been going on. We’ve been taking trips to the Arctic pole ever since we’ve discovered fluctuating magnetic activity at the poles, with the League going down south. We’re trying to investigate if any of our dimensional-transfer tech has been interfering with this, Bruce wouldn’t be happy if he discovered that he’s fucked up the earth. It’s cold. I keep trying to get Conner to cuddle me at night but he goes on long walks into the mountains in a t-shirt to ‘breathe in the world’. In other words, he’s happy here and we’re doing well. M’gann misses you. Her mind-link has been getting weaker recently, with our thoughts spilling over onto each other occasionally. She won’t tell us what’s wrong. I don’t think she knows, either. Hope you’re doing well in Paris. And I know I’ve been saying this for two years now but the mansion’s always open. Bruce knows where you are, but he pretends he doesn’t. Damian keeps on trying to find out. You need to meet him soon. Before he gets big enough to take down the both of us. Stay safe, Dick. I know what you’ve been up to. Don’t do anything stupid._

_Love,_

_Timmy_

Huh. Don’t do anything stupid, says the guy who’s sneaking behind his teammates’ backs to keep in contact with a fugitive. He smiles a little at the way Tim signs with ‘Love’, as if any of the Batkids were raised to be openly affectionate. He slides the letter back into its envelope and leaves it at the table for a reply some other day.

He is curious about the situation at the poles, though. It isn’t like Bruce to miscalculate the side-effects of his own tech, especially one of such a large magnitude. He decides to look into it further on his computer. Looks like it’s going to be a night of drilling through physics. If only… if only Wally was here, he’d love doing the research. Hell, he’d get it done in about five minutes and everything would be solved. Everything would be fine if Wally—

Stop it, Dick. He’s not here. He’s never coming back.

Dick eventually falls asleep on his table with an empty coffee mug and the blue light of his computer reflecting off his glasses. It’s not until about 9 in the morning when the sunlight starts creeping in, and he starts getting a series of alerts on the computer screen. He jolts out of his seat, leaning forward to examine the map on the screen.

More magnetic activity from the Arctic pole. Dick wants to investigate, but that’s practically impossible all the way from here. He’s survived two years without going back but… the situation seems to be escalating. If _Bruce_ is getting bothered about this, then it must be something. He tries to deny the tiny feelings of excitement simmering on the surface, but he starts getting caught up in thinking about seeing everyone else. M’gann, Tim, Conner, Kaldur? Will Kaldur be there? He’s assuming he would, since the entire place is basically water and ice. 

He suits up in his Nightwing gear and starts packing the essentials, weapons and computers. Never really lost touch of his tech skills, even with the lack of resources, being on the run and all. That’s something he can pride himself on. Now, onto basic Arctic gear… He can’t really say that he’s been stocking up on that over the past two years, and without Bruce’s storage supply filled with everything in the world ever, this might be a little difficult. It's a good thing Dick knew a lot of people who owed him favours, one of those being a high-speed jet plane.

-

With a couple of minutes left on the flight, Dick decides to contact Tim through the comm. He's installed his personal software on the plane so he'd be able to do access his contacts without inputting anything manually. This will definitely be a surprise to Tim, hopefully in a good way. Kind of like the call you get when you win the lottery, not that that’s ever happened before, but.

"Heeey Timmy," Dick sings.

"Dick? Holy— is that really you?" Tim yells through the comm. Dick hears the sound of a roaring blizzard behind him. "Hey guys, it's Dick!"

Dick chuckles in response. "Yeah, it’s me, flying right across the Arctic. Just wanted to let you know that I'll be dropping by soon. Hey, by the way, you got any extra polar gear?"

"I can't believe you're coming," Tim laughs, glee spilling through his voice. "And sure, of course we do. Will need to make modifications to keep your Nightwing brand alive though, but that shouldn't be a problem."

"Thanks Tim, you're the best." Dick has always admired Tim’s selflessness, it’s one of his best traits.

The screen in front of him starts beeping. He's in the right area, time to land. He lowers the plane and the view in front of him, large mountains all covered in a thick blanket of white. In the middle, he sees the tents set up by the team, all surrounding what looks to be a giant energy surge coming through the ice. Snow is rolling around in a circular motion in the center of the power surge, he hasn't seen anything like it in years. The last time one of those happened, it didn't end well.

"Yeah, we see your plane, Dickie. Bad timing for you to drop by, actually. Try landing it in the corner of the mountain on the left, you wouldn't want to get sucked into whatever that thing is," Tim says.

"Do you guys know what it actually is?" Dick asks, steering his plane to the side. He sees Tim peeking out from one of the tents and looking up at him. 

"Not a clue. Zatanna and Barbara are here trying to read its activity, but there's nothing."

"I'll find out what it is," Dick says. None of this is adding up, but something in the pit of his stomach tells him that it will soon. He isn’t sure if that’s what he really wants.

"You sound just like Bats,” Tim sniggers. Dick takes it anyway.

He manages to land his plane in the right spot, despite it being somewhat of a rough landing. The doors open and Bart comes speeding in before he even manages to take a step out. He's actually been looking forward to this, sort of.

“Heyyy Nightwing! So good to see you again! How have you been? _Where_ have you been? Timmy’s been keeping all sorts of secrets about you, don’t think I didn’t know that you two have been in contact— speedster’s sense! But anyway, so glad you’re back! Lots of weird stuff going around here, and I know you’re probably already used to that but, I mean _really_ weird stuff. Hey, do you wanna check out the blueprints for my new time-travelling machine?” Bart’s smiling up at him with those bright eyes, then starts zipping around his jet to check out the place.

“Hey Kid—“ Dick almost finishes that with the word _Flash_ , but it just feels wrong, like some type of betrayal almost. “Hey, Bart. Don’t worry, I’ve been alright. I heard about the magnetic activity, any clue as to what it is? We could use a bit of your future insight right now. Also, we can possibly hold off the time-travelling machine for another day if that’s okay.”

“If that’s okay with you, then it’s a-okay with me!” Bart speeds back to him. “Also, from my knowledge, never seen anything like this. Not since Wally, um… you know.” 

Dick notices the way Bart slows down his last few words and put a hand on his shoulder. They both walk out to see the rest of the team greeting them. Cassie, Conner, Jamie, Garth, Tim and Rocket are all there.

“Dick!” M’gann yells, levitating towards him and gripping him in a hug. “We’ve missed you so much.”

_Bialya. Memories of the team being trapped in the desert with no recollection as to why they were there. Glimpses of Kid Flash and Artemis running through the desert fighting a rampaging Superboy in the dead of night._

He snaps out of it. He feels a pang in his head, but it goes away quickly. Looking up at M’gann, he sees the horror in her face.

“I’m so sorry, I don’t know what’s wrong with me. My telepathy has been messing up lately, I’ve asked J’onn for help but he doesn’t know what’s happening either.”

“How long has it been going on for?” Dick asks.

“About a month or two,” M’gann replies. “Ever since the magnetic activity, really.”

“And J’onn hasn’t been affected?”

“Not as far as I know,” M’gann says, face falling. “But enough about me, let’s get you in one of the tents. We need to get you changed.”

“Some people are excited to see you,” Tim says from behind M’gann. 

“And who might those people be?”

“Your absolute faves, apart from me of course.” Tim smiles, and Dick just nods slowly in mock appreciation. He walks past Conner, who looks at him with warmth. He looks exactly the same as he did three years ago.

“Hey,” he says quietly. “Good to have you back.”

“It’s good to be back,” Dick chirps. “Everything going well? Tim’s told me about you guys.”

Conner blushes. His eyes start shifting from left to right. “Yeah, that just kind of happened. Is that weird for you? I mean, you guys are practically brothers.”

Dick laughs heartily. “So are we, Conner. I don’t think it gets any weirder than that. I’m glad you two are taking care of each other, though.”

“Yeah, me too.” Dick had missed Conner more than he expected. They never talked much, with Conner being consistently stoic and Dick being focused on The Mission at all times, but they shared a strong type of bond that went beyond words. Maybe it was setting him free from C.A.D.M.U.S all those years ago, but Dick had always noticed how Conner felt as comfortable in his presence as he did in his.

They enter the tent as Tim digs through their stockpile of polar gear. He hasn’t had time to add in those Nightwing colour mods, but that should be fine for now. Dick wouldn’t exactly pride himself in being in an all-white leotard, but hey, if that’s what the job needs. He trudges through the blizzard with the rest of the team to meet Zatanna and Barbara in the middle of the bluish-green energy surge growing through the ice.

“It still looks like it’s contained,” Dick says, examining the center of it. “It’s growing, but its spherical shape is locking it in the ground.”

“Huh. So you’re saying it’s just going to get worse? Wouldn’t want to stick around for that,” Bart retorts.

“It’s good to see you too, boy wonder,” Barbara turns to the side and gives him a little salute. She’s trying to read the magnetic force on her holographic pad, doing all the calculations he used to do.

“Babs,” Dick smiles at her, then nods to Zatanna. “I see she’s a little busy over there.”

He watches Zatanna meditating right beside the energy orb, floating in between the swirling snow and wind with bright, glowing blue eyes. She isn’t chanting any incantations at the moment, but she seems to be deeply focused on something. 

“Yeah, she’s on wizard mode at the moment. Been at it a while,” Barbara says.

“I’ve heard that’s not the only thing she’s been at for a while,” Dick smirks, which earns him a solid punch in the stomach.

“Ow,” Dick groans, rubbing his torso.

“Stop it,” Barbara grits. “I forgot how annoying you were.”

“I can’t imagine what that’s like. Bringing Conner and Zatanna home to meet Bats. Does he dress up in full costume at the dinner table? I’ve clearly been missing out on a lot.” 

“You think you’re so funny, ha-ha.” She leans in closer to him and says, “Bruce absolutely adores her. He gets on well with Conner too. They don’t really speak, just sit there reading books together. Or punch things occasionally. Might do you well to have some bonding time with the big man.”

Just as Dick tries to come up with some form of a retort, a shockwave hits all of them— a giant pulse aimed directly into their minds. Dick's head is throbbing and everything _hurts_ , he falls to the snowy ground along with the rest of the team. His mind can't stay silent, it's as if he can _feel_ everyone's pain. Overlapping, cumulative feelings of every single mind being twisted and stretched to their limits.

"M'gann!" Dick yells, but she's nowhere in sight. He can't even move his head, much less his entire body to go look for her. The flashbacks start again.

This time, she brings back memories of _everything_. Every single moment they've spent together since the day they met, kind of like what she showed them when the team lost their memories in Bialya. He gets glimpses of everything at once, and it's so heavy its physically weighing down his entire body to the ground. It's not just his memories either; it’s the entire team's. Every interaction M'gann has had with a person, every single moment of suffering, of joy, of mourning rushes through all of their minds at once.

" _Sucof ruoy sthguoht!_ " Zatanna manages to chant, and everything stops.

The memories are replaced with a vague image of a red and yellow storm, similar to the one in the blizzard in front of them. The place appears to be desolate, empty, as if it isn't tethered to any type of land. They're still in M'gann's mind, but this isn't a memory that Dick recognizes. It feels like... more like a telepathic connection. But with who?

" _Laever flesruoy!_ " Zatanna chants again, and this time, a voice replies.

"Let me out!" the voice yells, and Dick's heart drops. No. That can't be who he thought it was. He looks around and everyone's eyes are fixed on him. Even M'gann looks shocked when he finally sees her behind him. She levitates towards the energy source, holding hands with Zatanna in the air.

"Where is he?" Dick yells, unable to contain himself. "Where is he?"

_I don't know. Zatanna's trying to locate him within the energy force. She says she feels his energy, but his physical body remains unseen._

Dick feels his chest heaving, like a million tonnes of metal strapped onto his beating, trying heart. _Can you see him? M'gann, you have to get him out._

_I— I don't know where he is. You're already in my mind, I can only see as much as you can at the moment._

_M'gann!_

_Nightwing! Stop being a complete dick to M'gann. I can feel him in there, and he's alive. He's struggling to come out, but he's still fighting hard._

_I could possibly mind-link with him on a stronger level and phase inside the energy sphere, but I'd need to cut off contact with the rest of you._

Everyone looks at M'gann disapprovingly. They all know that that would be too dangerous. What if she gets sucked into the sphere and never comes back? What then? They can't afford to lose another teammate at this point. Not after everything they've sacrificed. Especially not while trying to get Wally back. Her life isn’t a sacrifice for his. Dick knows there's only one thing left to do.

"I'll come with you," he says. "I'll phase in there with you. Zatanna can give me protective cover, but keep me connected to him."

"Like that'll work," Tim scoffs.

"I can talk to him. M'gann's mind may be wide open but the density of information may be too overwhelming for him to read through. He'll recognize _me_. And if anything goes wrong, I tap out for Zatanna to pull us out of there."

"That's actually not a bad idea," Zatanna says.

"We'll try to stabilize the energy from outside for as long as we can," Rocket says. Dick’s forgotten what it feels like to have a network of support around him, people who have his back no matter what. It feels good. It feels human.

"Thanks guys," Dick replies. He takes a deep breath and holds M'gann's hand. She carries him up and into the pulsing centre.

 _Alright, we're doing this. Ready?_ M'gann checks in on him one more time.

 _More than ever._ This isn’t going to be like the last time, he tells himself. He’s going to get him out alive. He’s going to get him back.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've totally taken on the idea of a sentient speedforce from CW's The Flash, because it just works. Hope you guys enjoy this chapter :)

Dick and the rest of the team had been inside M’gann’s mind countless times over the course of the years, but it’s never felt like this before. Not even when that training exercise went wrong, because despite all that, it was a _training exercise_. None of it was real, but this time it is. Stuck in a whirlwind of a flashing, sooty orange storm, Dick has never felt so out of his depth before.

It wasn’t until he focused on those feelings of being untethered, of being above physical space, that he realized where they were. They were inside the speedforce. At least, M’gann’s mind had made a secure enough connection to transport them to where Wally was mentally. There was no sign of him though, just echoes of what sounded like his voice earlier on.

 _Wally! Where are you?_ M’gann calls out. No response.

Dick initiates contact. _Wally, it’s me. Dick. Please come out, we’re here for you. We can get you home._

And then suddenly: _Where have you been all this time?_

Right in the chest, he feels his heart drop. Dick can sense the regret in M’gann’s mind as well. It was a valid question posed by Wally. And maybe to a certain extent, it was true—why haven’t they been able to find him until now? It was a question that Dick had been asking himself every day for the past three years, and he was sure that the rest of the team did the same. They all harbored feelings of guilt over not being able to _do more_ , to sacrifice as much as Wally did that day. It was a selfless moment that none of them could truly ever repay for.

Dick remembers spending the first few months on an intense search for Wally. Despite being cut off from the team, he had kept in contact with Barry to try to see if there was any place he could be. Barry had even tried entering the speedforce a few times, but he couldn’t sustain his powers inside it for too long. It was too powerful and too abstract of a place. He didn’t think it was possible. They had almost lost hope.

Until now. Until Dick realizes he’s able to talk to the person he thinks he’s lost forever, to have him within his reach, knowing that he’s alive and— not exactly well, but, alive. He’s not about to give up.

 _I can hear your thoughts, Dick. I know it must’ve been hard._ Wally suddenly responds. Dick has forgotten how powerful an empathic link can be. He probably doesn’t have to thank M’gann for this later, if she’s already hearing his thoughts anyway.

 _How do we get you out?_ Dick finally asks, taking a step closer into the brewing storm with M’gann following behind.

_You have to pull me out. I’ve been trying to escape but I can’t generate enough kinetic energy to get myself out, even at my top speed. I’m right at the edge of breaking the barrier, so it doesn’t matter if you don’t have speed, you can tip us over. Just find me, please._

M’gann and Dick look at each other and nod. Holding hands, M’gann levitates them into the thick of the storm.

_We’ll find you, Wally._

They spend hours in the storm, but everything looks faded and a blur the same. M’gann tells Dick that this is nothing like she’s ever seen before. Not even the ruins of Kaldur’s mind can compare to this. There are no directions, no signs of an end to the space containing them. The only positive thing is that Zatanna’s energy bubble is still holding up. They can count themselves lucky for that.

When they finally see a shadow figure running among the storm, they race to catch it. It takes several more hours of chasing, flying around the storm to catch up with it. _Damn speedsters_ , Dick thinks. M’gann’s energy is wearing thin at this point and Dick lunges to catch the shadowy figure in his arms. The figure turns around, and Dick feels his eyes watering. It’s Wally. In his arms, the same way he used to be all those years ago. He can barely hold himself up and finds himself leaning on Wally for support instead of the other way around.

“I can’t believe… it’s really you,” Dick chokes out, cupping his face in his hands. He’s still in his speedster suit but Dick can see the tufts of ginger hair sticking out on it. He can’t help himself from gently stroking his forehead and running his fingers along those bright red waves. Wally closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, and now it’s Dick sighing at the fact that he can actually _touch_ Wally— familiar, warm, everything he’s been dreaming of ever since they were torn apart.

“Wally, we missed you so much,” M’gann says, joining in the hug.

“I missed you guys too,” Wally replies, smiling at the way both M’gann and Dick are nuzzled up in his chest. “Now, let’s get the hell out of here.”

“Agreed,” Dick finally stands up straight and rubs his eyes with his arm. “Everyone, stay whelmed. M’gann’s going to hold on to the both of us while Wally runs full speed ahead, when you’re at your top speed yell ‘GO’ and I’ll tap the energy bubble for an extra boost out from Zatanna.”

“Sounds good to me, cap,” Wally says. “So long speedforce, go fuck with another speedster next time.”

“Um, the only other speedsters around are part of your family, Wally,” M’gann reminds him.

“Oh, right. I meant the bad ones. Barry and Jay have been against a ton of them, I’m sure. Yeah, suck them in instead of me. But thanks for keeping me alive,” Wally says.

Dick frowns. “Are you... talking to the speedforce?”

“I’ll explain later, but hey, in my defense I’ve been alone for a while. Gotta talk to someone around here!” Wally cries out. 

Dick chuckles, because that’s definitely something he can relate to. That was one of the things he had missed about being with Wally, the way they could talk for hours about anything and everything. Anyone else would have probably killed him from the amount of words and general annoyance (and many criminals have certainly tried when he couldn’t keep his mouth shut), but with Wally, it’s just fun.

He holds onto Wally and M’gann, slinging his arms over their shoulders in between them. Wally propels them forward, running full speed ahead while M’gann pushes them with levitating force. It’s not that Dick hasn’t been carried around by Wally while in super-speed before, but man, this feels different. It feels like his body is moving through hyperspace, he can barely feel anything at all but at the same time feels everything in the world around him. Colours in the speedforce start changing, with streaks of light coming through and the sky morphing into blurry images of the real world above them. Zatanna!

 _This is it guys, top speed!_ Wally tells them.

Going for the classic Grayson move, Dick hoists himself up off M’gann and Wally’s shoulders and extends his legs out to deliver the perfect kick to Zatanna’s energy bubble. His body contorts into a perfect ‘T’ shape and as soon as his feet touch the surface the entire dimension around them begins to collapse. Wally bends over to grab M’gann and bring her over to his right side, with both her and Dick clutching on to his body from both sides. He waits for the shield to completely break down, then accelerates _the hell_ out of the speedforce. 

They break open the energy sphere, but not before creating a massive explosion in the middle of the icy grounds. They tumble into the snow, and with no time to sit around, race to the closest jet they can find, which, happens to be Dick’s. They see the rest of the team already splitting up to avoid the avalanche that will inevitably follow, but everyone’s doing double takes to get a glimpse at Wally and even Dick still feels that its all so surreal.

“I have to go back to the Bio-Ship,” M’gann finally says. “They’re all waiting for me out there. You two take care of yourselves, we’ll catch up later.”

She hugs them goodbye and leaves. The mountains around them start rumbling, and Dick can hear the first few waves of the avalanche coming in. He drags Wally into the ship and sets it up for immediate takeoff. He decides its best to retreat to Paris for a bit, to patch up before coming back to the rest of the squad. He wouldn’t want to overwhelm Wally or anything at this point, Dick doesn’t know what he’s been through in there, or what he’s ready for. He isn’t even sure if he’s ready for a full return into the team. And Bats? Don’t even get him started. So yeah, he has totally selfless reasons for ditching them, and none of them about getting alone time with Wally or anything like that. Nope, definitely not. 

Dick carefully maneuvers the jet out of the snowy mountains before putting it on autopilot. He actually wishes he had more to do the minute he switches the lever, because now he actually has to face Wally on his own. He’s not exactly scared but— it’s been a while.

“So,” Dick gets up from his pilot seat and walks over to Wally. “You wanna talk about what happened in there?”

"I... I don't know. The speedforce is a confusing place. I saw so many things that I could never even have imagined. I feel... different," Wally says, not looking up from his lap. He's playing with a piece of rock in his hands that came after the energy explosion.

Dick swallows. He's not sure if that's what he wanted to hear. "Different how?" 

Wally shrugs. "Dunno. All the things that I thought mattered back then, not so much now. And things I never gave a second thought to, they showed me the value in those things. They were kind of a pain though, with all the shitty mind games they played on me, about finding my destiny and purpose and all that. But in the end they decided to let me go." 

"And I'm assuming by 'they' you mean the speedforce." Yeah, this is one part of his story that Dick is probably never going to understand.

"Yeah, I thought I'd fulfilled my destiny. I mean, I saved the world, Dick. I gave my life to save this world, what more could I possibly do to top that?" Wally vibrates his hands, rubbing the piece of rock and smoothing out its surfaces.

"What'd they tell you?" Dick asks, folding his arms together.

Wally takes a breath, but then bites his lip instead. "That I just have more to do, I guess. More people to save. Standard hero business."

Dick can tell that he's hiding something, but he doesn't push it. Wally finishes smoothing out the rock and hands it over to Dick. It's oval in shape, and warm to the touch at first. Wally dusts off the debris off his hands and off his clothes.

"You're cleaning that up," Dick points to the floor underneath him.

"I know this isn't even your plane," Wally smirks at him. "Doesn't have enough of that Nightwing vibe of yours. And speaking of, your snow gear? Definitely needs a bit of an upgrade."

"It's not— Tim had to give me a last minute suit!" It's not until Dick takes off his headgear that he realizes his face has turned red, which earns raised eyebrows from Wally. "Fine, I needed to change anyway."

He slides his compartment box from under one of the seats and opens it. Fumbling through the array of tools and other pieces of equipment, he takes out his Nightwing suit and heads over to the locker room at the back of the plane. He strips out of his polar gear and puts back on the Nightwing gear. Throughout the years, the uniform is what kept him feeling like himself despite everything going on around him. Being in the outfit reminded him that, no matter the hard choices he had to make, no matter how much he's changed since the days of being Robin, his ultimate goal was to try to make the world a better place for everyone in it. It's something that he can always take pride in.

He walks back out to find Wally in the pilot seat fiddling with the controls. It's password locked on autopilot, Dick reminds himself and breathes before a panic ensues.

"Not trying to crash the plane are you?" Dick says, walking back to the compartment box and folding his polar suit in front of him. 

"Just seeing how much of this stuff I actually remember. Not that I've ever flown a plane but, I've seen you guys do it and—" Wally turns around and sees Dick in his suit. "Woah."

Dick looks at him. "What is it?" 

"Nothing, um," Wally stammers, pretending to fiddle with the controls again. "I like the new suit. You look good in red." 

"Oh," Dick says. Not what he was expecting. His cheeks are burning again, shit. Good thing the black mask does a way better job of hiding it than white does.

"Guess I missed out on a lot in the past three years, huh." Wally's head drops, and Dick thinks about whether or not to tell him about leaving the team and everything. He decides to put it off until later, Wally's bound to ask questions when they end up in a tiny flat in Paris instead of Mount Justice tonight.

"I have too," Dick replies. "Guess we both have a lot of catching up to do then."

Wally smiles at him, and there it is. The look that's always been there for him when he needed it. The look that reassured him that no matter what, it would be okay. Dick remembers the days they used to sneak away in between missions, when they had a day off or two, and go sightseeing around whichever city they were in. Wally would do something stupid, Dick would try to hide but Wally would just scoop him up and zip them off miles and miles away. He remembers laughing about this together, during nights when they were huddled up in the freezing desert when everyone else would be asleep or on watch duty.

He remembers the first time they kissed. It was when they returned from Bialya, when their memories had first been recovered after that total wipe from Simon. Dick had been teasing Wally about trying to make a move on Artemis, and Wally was clearly annoyed. 

_"What's the matter?" Dick taunted him. "You obviously like her, why can't you just admit it?"_

_Wally huffed, crossing his arms and turning away from him. "It's not like that."_

_"Are you sure? Then what is it like?" Dick was just engaging in some good natured banter, but he was also way curious on the inside._

_"You know," Wally murmured. "I like you."_

_And it didn't happen too often, but for once Dick didn't know what to say. His silence must've annoyed Wally even more, because soon after he spoke he started heading for the door._

_"Whatever, it's stupid," Wally said as he stormed off. He wasn't running, which actually gave Dick a shot at chasing after him._

_"Wait," he said, grabbing his arm from behind. "How come you never said anything?"_

_"I told you, it's stupid," Wally said. Dick felt awful. Throughout all his years in superhero training, this was the one thing that Bruce hadn't prepared him for. He did have standard protocol for difficult situations though, which consisted of: assessing the situation, examining his options, and then responding with the one which had the least catastrophic outcome._

_In this case, Dick's brain must have been absolutely fried because he couldn't determine a good outcome from a catastrophic one. So he did what he had never done before— whatever the hell he wanted to do._

_He pulled Wally in and kissed him, long and hard. Wally seemed surprise by the sudden jolt, but after the initial rush, he melted right into his arms. It was the first time Dick had ever felt good about a decision without overthinking it. Because that's what being with Wally felt like— neither of them had to think about it because it already felt good._

Now, the only thing Dick can do in Wally's presence is _think_. He hasn't mentioned a single word about Artemis, which, should have been his first concern. And all that talk about rearranging his priorities in the speedforce? That had to have been a hint, right? It's only been a couple of hours and Dick's already about to lose his mind. He goes back to the pilot seat and switches off the autopilot. He needs to land this plane at some point, and he's better off focusing on other things right now.

-

They arrive in Paris at around midnight. Dick leads Wally back to his flat, and so far, Wally has stayed silent about the whole thing. He whips out his keys and opens the front door. Shit. He's forgotten how much of a mess his place is. Wally doesn't seem concerned by that though (of course he isn't) but starts reading his mail instead.

"You haven't been with the team?" he asks, reading through the pile of letters from Tim. Now he's finally starting to look concerned. Dick tries to keep himself busy by clearing up the clutter in his kitchen. Empty cereal boxes, in the bin. Plates and cutlery might need washing too, but that can wait until tomorrow. 

"Dude, why didn't you tell me?" Wally presses. "I'm kind of worried about you now. I mean, we are in a shady hideout apartment in Paris. If you think I didn't notice, well— I did."

"Wally—" Dick nearly raises his voice, but manages to stop himself. He says softly this time, "Not now, please." 

"Okay," Wally says and leaves it at that. "Just, you know. Talk to me, man. The way we used to."

"What's there to talk about?" Dick sighs, tying up the bin bag and bringing it over to the door. "You died, Wally. Got sucked into the speedforce, whatever. I couldn't live with reminders of that every day, so I left the team and so did Artemis, who, by the way— went through a hell of a lot when she lost you. Why aren't you out there looking for her?"

"That's what I was trying to tell you, about being in the speedforce. They told me that she'd move on, and that I would too—" 

"Okay, can you quit with the whole 'the speedforce told me' thing, because it kind of sounds like a bad excuse for everything that's happened." 

"Hey," Wally snaps back. "You have no idea what I went through in there, and you have absolutely _no_ idea how the speedforce works so stop talking shit about it. I talked to Artemis while I was in there and we've both moved on, Dick. Yeah, she knows I'm alive. Bet you didn't know that, super detective. So before you get on your high horse and tell me to stay _whelmed_ , think about how much you know me before you try to attack me again for _dying_ for all of you!"  

Wally heads for the door and runs straight out, leaving it wide open. The excess wind blows away all of Tim's letters from the living room table and scatters all over the floor. Dick knows that he's totally, absolutely fucked up big time.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dick and Wally spend some time adjusting to being back at Mount Justice. Also, they both get their asses handed to them by Babs during training, because, character development.

Morning comes by faster than Dick would like. He’d rather stay in the comfort of his own sheets than see the first few rays of sunlight trickling through his window curtains. He had slept early the last night, almost immediately after Wally left. The whole day had drained him more than any other recent mission had, and he just didn’t have the strength to do anything else that trip inside the speedforce.

Just as he tries to doze off to sleep again, he hears a tapping sound on his window that gets more and more aggressive with every passing second. He rolls over and wraps himself up his blanket to try to ignore the sound, and then maybe it'll fuck off. He hears metals tinkering until his window panes crack open, fully letting in the bright sunlight, along with two surprise visitors. They hover over his bed until he finally peeks from under the sheets. 

"Do I have to point out that you look like a mess? Or have you lost your sense of self-awareness?" Tim says, giving him a condescending smile as he leans down to poke his face repeatedly.

Dick swats his arm away. "Self-awareness still in tact. Friendship with Wally, not so much."

Tim's face turns serious. "I can make a guess as to who's fault that is."

"Really?" Dick says in mock bewilderment. "Well done, detective." He curses himself when he realizes that he's just used the same derogatory insult Wally did last night.

He sits up and rubs his eyes open, leaning against the backboard of his bed. Tim throws a white shirt at him (how did he even have a shirt on hand?) and he slips it on with a soft huff. Conner hasn't said a word since he's arrived, but he's giving Dick a look that's somewhere in between disappointment and concern. Dick doesn't really want to find out which one it is.

"Get your ass out of bed, you're coming to Mount Justice," Tim says, looking at him with deathly eyes. 

"Can't. Gotta look for Wally," Dick replies, throwing off the covers and swinging his legs out of bed as he walks off. He doesn't even care that he's wearing a pair of Nightwing boxers right now, bought at a flea market somewhere in Slovakia.

"Where do you think he is?" Conner finally says, voice filling the room. Dick turns around and he sees Conner's sharp eyes looking straight through him. "He came by last night and set off the alarm because our security system couldn't ID him. Black Canary has granted him a place back in the cave while the League assesses his medical status. She says it's the best place for him to rehabilitate for now and we all know that you, of all people, need a bit of that too."

Dick wants to protest. Pfft. _Rehab_. Like he's the one who's been sucked into an alternate dimension for three years. He's been doing what any other superhero has, fighting crime, taking down mafia bosses, secret organizations. Just because he isn't doing it with a _team_ doesn't mean that he needs any kind of help. Batman's never needed to go to rehab before. 

"It's not debatable, if that's what you're thinking," Tim says as Dick heads for the kitchen. 

He starts opening the fridge and grabs his selection of eggs, cheeses, vegetables and milk. Tim and Conner trail him and kind of glare at him while he prepares his breakfast. If they want to watch him make a five-egg omelette then they were certainly welcome to. Doesn't mean he's obliged to engage in conversation. He whips out a pan from the cupboard and switches on the stove. No sound from Tim yet, he turns around to find that he's been organizing his letters that have been scattered all over the floor from last night. Conner's just wandering around the place, as if looking for signs of infestation.

Dick comes back with the hot plate of breakfast after a few minutes and leans on the kitchen counter table, opposite Tim, who has somehow ended up snugly sitting on Conner's lap on one of the high stools. That's definitely going to break at some point. 

"So," Dick says, stuffing a forkful of egg and cheesy tomatoes into his mouth. “Say I come back. What’s the drill? Am I back in charge again, running training sessions, assigning missions?”

“You’ll start with a psych eval,” Tim says. “You can run training sessions, yes. Anything else, you’ll need to run by our head of operations.” 

“And who might that be?” Dick asks, taking a sip of his glass of milk. 

Tim finally breaks into a smile, and Dick feels his stomach drop. “Batgirl. She won’t let you off easy.”

Dick huffs. He’d somehow expected this, and he knows he shouldn’t be making any commitments in the middle of an upcoming covert mission back in Blüdhaven, but being a fugitive in the most concealed superhero base is a lot better than being a fugitive in one of the world’s biggest cities. He also gets a kick out of the thought of seeing the team again, even that short trip to the Arctic had reminded him just how much he had missed being with everyone. Also, if it’s a chance to repair things with Wally under the supervision of his teammates then… it’s possibly worth a shot. If Babs and Tim will be hovering over his head 24/7, then he definitely wouldn’t have an excuse for screwing up this time.

“Fine,” Dick finally says. “But part time. I’ve still got other things I need to take care of around here, so if I need to go, then I’m going.”

“You’ll need to disclose all of your ongoing missions to Batgirl and she’ll give you the clear—”

“Yeah, yeah. Talk to Babs, give her a laundry list of all the stuff I might be getting myself into. Keep myself in a state of _array_."

Tim scrunches his face in confusion, but Dick can see Conner smiling from behind his shoulder. His head is rested comfortably in between Tim’s collarbone and neck, and it’s kind of really adorable. He remembers moments when him and Wally used to do the same, although slightly more low-key due to their officially-unofficial status.

_“Dude, we have a training session in exactly— eight minutes,” Dick tried to sound assertive, but that was a little difficult when has was wearing a full-fledged grin on his face, back pressed against the wall._

_“Eight minutes? That’s plenty of time for a speedster to get things done!” Wally said, two hands on Dick’s waist as he presses himself up against his friend. He let out a small groan upon feeling the friction, as Dick curled a finger under his chin to pull him in for a kiss._

_“Rule number one: never get ahead of yourself,” Dick said as their lips separated. Wally drew in a sharp breath._

_“We’re not making it to training are we." He bit his lip as he felt Dick's hands moving. “Call in sick?"_

_“Rule number two,” Dick said, _cupping his face in his entire hand now_. “Time-management is everything. You don’t need to be a speedster to use your time efficiently."_

Dick snaps out of it when Tim and Conner start heading out the front door. He notices that Conner’s arm is wrapped around Tim’s back, hanging slightly over his leather-bound ass. What is it about Robins and having their asses groped by their boyfriends? Wait, Wally wasn’t a boyfriend. He’s definitely getting ahead of himself now. Ahh.

“Look, if you don’t want a free ride then, fine by me. But we’ve got the Bio-Ship ready on the roof.” Tim’s using his condescending adult voice right now. On Dick. If this is the play-by-play, then fine. He’s taking charge in his next move.

It’s been years since he’s been on the Bio-Ship, but even after all this time he hasn’t forgotten the sheer joys of piloting it. Once M’gann had trusted him enough to teach him the controls, Dick had always jumped at every opportunity he got to fly it. It takes them about four hours to reach Mount Justice, but when they finally arrive it feels like he's never left.

They walk into an ongoing training session. A sparring match between Batgirl and Wally is currently under way. Dick stands by and watches in amusement. Wally's fast, but Babs is smarter than anyone else in the room and would have paid enough attention to his fighting style to key in some form of pattern. Wally hooks both arms under her shoulders and keeps her in place, but she quickly hoists herself up and kicks him with both legs as he loses his balance and grip around her. Ouch. Dick's been on the receiving end of that move far too many times before. 

Wally gets in front of her, tries to throw several quick punches at her. She manages to block most of them with her arms held out in front, until Wally knees her in the side. She tries to kick back, but Wally grabs ahold of her leg too fast and throws her until she's lying flat on her back. Dick sniggers, and he can feel Tim glaring at him. She gets back on her feet fairly quickly— she has to, because Wally's running towards her so quickly Dick doesn't even _know_ how she manages to catch his wrist mid-punch. She’s definitely found his pattern. 

"Not this time," she says, using her free arm to deliver a blow straight to his abdomen. She brings both his arms behind his back until Wally taps out.

"Alright alright! You got me," Wally says as she lets him go, stretching his arms back out and cringing at the pain. "Kind of forgot how much bruising was involved in superhero work."

"Who wants to go next?" she says as Wally walks off, hands placed firmly on her hips. "Nightwing? You'd make a great example for the rest." 

He sees her smiling at him from behind her mask. He really isn't the mood to spar anyone at the moment, especially Babs. But he's never been one to shy away from being a good role model. Everyone is watching him as he steps up to the floor. Bart and Jaime are watching him, wide-eyed and excited. Cassie also seems keen to watch, and even Tim is giving him his undivided attention. The older members are cheering him on, and Dick glances at Wally before he starts, who doesn't have a twinge of hostility left in his eyes but hasn't said anything since last night.

He takes a deep breath and prepares his stance. M'gann inputs his data into the computer (great, they're keeping this in his three-year-old log) and turns on the program.

"Your move, big bird," Barbara taunts, and Dick comes in for the swoop.

He grabs her by the shoulders and pushes himself up, turning his body a full one-eighty degrees before locking onto her neck with his thighs. She struggles with unhooking his left leg, so bends down to try to flip herself forwards instead. Dick lands on his hands as he rolls off her. She goes in for a kick, which he manages to catch with one of his hands. She uses the leverage to jump and knee him in the chest with her other leg. Damn it. If only his reflexes were as fast as Wally's. But then again, as proven from the previous round, maybe speed isn't that great of an advantage.

She uses the second Dick needs to re-stabilize to throw a quick two punch move, which would have hit him had he not ducked out of the way. Too close. He backflips to gain some distance between them, and Barbara comes running at him only to dive under his legs, hands forward. She holds herself up with her hands and delivers another backwards kick. Dick manages to backflip again just in time for the impact to only feel like a slightly-brutal poke. It’s a slight successful landing right in front of Barbara, who's still on her hands and toes on the floor. Grabbing him by the ankle, she slides to the side when he tries to kick her with his free leg. He ends up stepping on the floor instead, and before he can look back at her direction, he sees Wally, right in front of him. He's giving him a small encouraging smile, which is a lot more moving than he thought it would be.

He never thought he'd see that smile again— a small reminder that maybe, just maybe, things between them can be okay again. He spends a little too much time pondering, however, that before he knows it Barbara has him in a full headlock from behind and with one fist hovering over his ribs.

"In a real fight, I'd have my Batarangs," she says, smugness seeping through her voice in between long, heavy pants.

Dick is also trying to steady his breathing, but with Barbara pressed up behind him and sweat dripping from the back of his neck he's starting to think it's a little too close for comfort right now. "In a real fight, I'd have my toys too. But I think we've made our point here."

She finally lets him go and he takes a much needed breath of relief. He doesn't know why, but his first instinct is to look back at Wally. He's still smiling, but he’s got a look that says he's ready to leave. 

"That... was totally awesome!" Bart says, speeding over to Dick. He pats him on the shoulder, then pulls up his hand for a fist bump, which then leaves Dick's arm half-hanging in the air.

"That enough training for today," Black Canary says, overlooking the team from the side as she turns off the computers. "Get some rest tonight. You'll be posted a new mission tomorrow. Nightwing, Kid Flash— I need to speak with you both."

Bart and Wally both speed over to Canary, eyeing each other curiously. 

"Uh..." Wally says. "When you said Kid Flash—"

"I meant you," she reassures him, then looks at Bart. "Sorry Allen. Confidential business."

"Yes, ma'am!" Bart says, with a slight tint of disappointment in his voice. It fades away quickly though; the second he runs back to Jaime he starts babbling all over again.

"We really need to work on getting you a new name," Dick jokes, hoping that Wally would toss him a snarky comment in return. 

"I feel like there isn't a place for me here anymore," Wally says, looking down at the floor. "The systems didn't recognize me, I got my ass handed to me by Batgirl, and now I can't even wear my uniform or use my _real_ superhero name." 

Shit. That wasn't what Dick had in mind. He tries to fix it as quickly as he can, "Don't worry, Walls. You've always belonged here, we just... need a little time and practice to get used to things again. Like I said, lots of catching up to do, right?"

"And you'll still be able to keep the uniform, Wally. I'm sure Bart wouldn't mind switching back to his old one temporarily. Also, don't you maybe think your superhero name needs a bit of an upgrade? You're definitely not a kid anymore, and it wouldn't hurt to have another Flash around us. Jay and Barry never had a problem with sharing the same name," Black Canary replies.

Wally sighs, scratching the back of his head. He's blushing slightly at the way they're talking to him, Dick can tell. Wally wasn't used to people being openly affectionate or caring towards him, especially when it was with _sincerity_. Hidden under small-talk and banter? Way too easy. With the curtains down, though, he starts feeling something inside him that goes straight to his cheeks, adding a dash of red around those orange freckles.

"I guess... yeah," Wally finally replies, perking up a little. "Never a bad thing to be associated with Uncle Barry and Gramps."

"Absolutely not," Black Canary says, resting a hand on his shoulder. "So, I wanted to talk to you two about the psychological evaluation. It was meant to be scheduled for tonight but I've got unfinished business down in Star City so I'll come back first thing tomorrow. The rest of the team will be out on a mission and that'll give us a free, no-distractions environment to work with."

"Wait," Dick stops her. "You mean we're going in together?" Wally shoots him a look and shit, that wasn't meant to come off as aggressive.

"Robin gave me the impression that you two needed a joint counselling session, but if that's not the case I'd be happy to provide separate sessions.

Of course Tim was behind this. Great. Now he has to flat out say that he doesn't want to express his deepest darkest feelings with Wally in the room, without sounding like a total asshat.

"I think I'd prefer my own session," Wally says. "No offence, Dick. I just... have some things that I need to work out right now."

Oh. He didn't expect that. "Y-yeah, same. I mean, whatever's more comfortable for you."

Dick tries to make eye-contact with Wally, but Wally's glancing around the room awkwardly until Black Canary dismisses them.

"Goodnight, you two. I'll see you in the morning. Wally, you're up first so be ready." She walks off to the zeta tubes and disappears into the light. Once she's gone, they spend a few moments in silence before finally looking back at each other. 

"Hey, about last night—"

"Dick, I'm sorry—"

"No no," Dick cuts him off. "I was being a complete tool and you were right. I had no idea what you went through in there and it must've been harder than any of us could have ever imagined. I guess I was just... angry about all that lost time, angry that you were trapped in there. Even though in no way was that your fault. I mean, shit. The speedforce? It takes more than a hero to survive that, I don’t know anyone else who could even come close. I've been a cop for the past three years and I'm probably an even bigger mess than you are right now."

"Wait, you're a _cop_ now?" Wally's blurts out, eyes lighting up. He then folds his arms and looks up to the ceiling. "Honestly, why am I not surprised."

Dick laughs along with Wally. It's nice to see him excited again. "Yeah, it's hard to explain. Kind of my new day job now."

"Dude, don't tell me— they call you _Officer Grayson_ ," Wally snorts.

"They actually do," Dick admits, grinning. "What can I say, it has a nice ring to it."

“It totally sounds like a stripper name, but hey, whatever floats your boat,” Wally throws his hands up in feigned indifference. “I really don’t know how you manage to do all this. Guess it doesn’t take a speedster to use your time efficiently.”

Dick freezes. Wait, was that meant to be a reference?

_“Rule number two. Time-management is everything. You don’t need to be a speedster to use your time efficiently."_

Wally starts backtracking on his comment now. “Uh, so. I guess it’s time for me to head off. Got an early start tomorrow, it’s been a long day of getting my ass kicked.”

Oh, good. They’re brushing over it, good. That’s for the best. Dick forces a laugh, “Yeah, me too." 

“Please,” Wally scoffs. “You actually managed to hold your own. I was practically her own personal punching bag. Not a great start back to heroism. Anyway, if you’re planning to hit the sheets then it’s this way. We’ve got our old rooms back." 

Dick gladly follows behind Wally when they head down the same corridor they used to live in. On days when they had extended missions, or when Dick needed a well-deserved break from Gotham, or just someone to hang out with, he’d call up Wally and agree to stay over at Mount Justice for a couple of nights. Red Tornado would hover around them without comment, just the occasional suggestions for training activities or reading material. They would politely (or in Wally’s case, not so politely) decline and just do whatever the hell they wanted to do anyway. Head to the beach, play video games, or snuggle tight in bed like they had all the time in the world— because back then, they did.

A rush of nostalgia hits Dick when Wally stops in front of his room. He remembers countless days and nights when the two of them would push each other through the door and settle on whatever position they ended up in on the bed, floor, wherever. They were at that age where this was all new to them and they just wanted to explore each other's bodies as much as they could. All that mattered was that they were with each other, bodies close and tight without any spaces in between. And Dick doesn’t know if it’s the fact that he’s been letting his mind run free too much these past few days, or the fact that Wally’s just _so close_ next to him, the same way he used to be all those years ago, or if— or if he’s just desperate to get some grounding, but his hand brushes over Wally’s instinctively as Wally tries to open the door.

Wally turns around, and Dick’s fingers are now gently wrapped around his hand. He looks surprised, but not alarmed. Neither of them seem to know whether to let go, and it’s Dick paranoia that finally pulls away just as he feels Wally’s hand tightening ever-so-slightly around his.

“I, ah. I need sleep,” Dick says, and he watches Wally’s face drop. He’s not doing this again, no. Wally turns around to head to his room but Dick grabs him by the wrist and stops him momentarily. “Hey, Wally? You know I’m glad you’re back right? Best day of my life, even if I screwed up at the end.”

Wally smiles, and Dick can breathe for a second knowing that he hasn’t done anything catastrophic tonight.

“Yeah, I know,” Wally replies. “You kind of have a habit of doing that. Maybe Black Canary will help you sort your shit out tomorrow.”

“I wouldn’t really count on it. Wouldn’t want you to be disappointed when you realize I’m still the same asshole that told you to go fuck the speedforce.”

He gets a shrug and a lopsided grin in response. “Who knows, maybe you’ll learn a thing or two from the big— erm, bigger bird.”

Wally places a hand on the handle of his door and twists it open, leaving Dick with a parting message before he decides to head off. “Goodnight, Officer Grayson. Try to stay off the night patrol tonight.”

And with that, he’s gone. Dick retreats into his own room. It’s almost exactly the same as it was all those years ago. The only difference is that the mattress has clearly been replaced by a new one, because his body actually feels like its sinking into the bed instead of just feeling like he’s landed on a cotton-covered block of marble. He remembers all the complaints Wally used to pull out, insisting that they stay over in his room instead (he had gotten Barry to bring one of their home mattresses over) but Dick was persistent in staying in his own room where he would have all his work equipment, computers, and everything else he needed to feel secure and prepared for anything. 

It irritated Wally sometimes, how Dick wouldn’t _compromise_ , not even for a night. It was one of those things that Dick didn’t realize had built a strain on their relationship, beyond just the topic of mattresses and the like. There were other aspects of their relationship too, where Dick was a little too stiff for Wally’s liking, but he was just so young back then. What did he know about handling mature, romantic relationships, especially one with his best friend? How could he have known that their relationship would turn out to be something so complex?

He tries to get some sleep. Undressing himself from his Nightwing outfit isn’t his favourite part of the day, admittedly, but it does feel a lot better when he’s naked in bed, without the constraints of skin-tight leather clutching his body. He pulls the sheets over him and doesn’t even bother setting an alarm for the next morning. He’s relying on Tim, Babs, or whoever— to drag his ass out of bed whenever he’s needed because there is nothing that’s going to deter him from a good night’s sleep tonight, and he means _nothing_.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where it kind of gets NSFW, so just a warning! (Not sure if I should tag it 'E'?)  
> Wally and Dick learn to settle in each other's spaces again, Dick discusses his feelings with Black Canary, and the rest of the Bat family are gossiping about him and his not-so-secret-crush on Wally.

Dick’s plan to get a good night’s sleep doesn’t exactly go the way he wanted it to. His first problem involves being woken up by the time of dream that should be plaguing teenagers, not a twenty-one year old. He wakes up drenched in sweat, gripping his sheets tight as he remembers that he’s the only one in his bed at the moment. Fuck. He hasn’t felt like that in ages, hot and drained from anything other than a mission.

And to makes things worse, he dreamed about _Wally_. What a surprise. The details are fuzzy, but he remembers the feeling of being pressed up against his red-headed friend, friction in all the right places and having a pulsing hard-on that really doesn’t feel any different when he wakes up. He reaches down his sheets to tug at himself slightly, letting him ease the tension— but the desperation doesn’t lessen one bit. He moans quietly, remembering that Wally is in the room next door, and bites his lip as he jerks harder, fingers pressing tightly around the tip.

He thinks about how Wally’s hand would do it, always coming off a little too strong but no less satisfying. He had a penchant for rushing into things in bed, but whenever Dick told him to slow down— God, would he be a tease. Dick doesn’t have time for that right now, though. He wants it now, and he wants it _fast_. Speeding up his movements, he thinks about how Wally used to vibrate his handjobs, driving Dick absolutely crazy. He doesn’t have that same gift, but he makes do with what he has anyway.

He bends one of his legs up, whining with his eyes closed as he continues to work himself. He feels precum leaking already, and fuck, he wished he’d brought lube with him. Too bad it wasn’t on his packing list when he came yesterday. What ever happened to Dick Grayson, the man who was prepared for anything and everything?

It doesn’t take long for him to blow his load, and _that_ definitely wasn’t something he had prepared for. He manages to kick off his sheets just in time for it to spill over his abs without making a mess on the bed. Sighing, he thinks about how he can’t really be bothered to clean up after himself, but kind of has to. He used to be the worst at post-coital maintenance, while Wally was surprisingly functional. Dick would just lie there, practically dead, or try to snuggle up to his partner while he was busy getting out of bed and grabbing a box of tissues.

He manages to lean over to the table next to his bed to reach for a towel, it was the best he could do at the moment, still half-asleep and dazed from that too-quick orgasm. He wipes himself clean – as clean as he can be – and curls back up into the sheets. It doesn’t take a lot for him to fall asleep, and he manages to doze off for a couple of minutes until he gets woken up again by Wally yelling from the next room.

Dick jolts out of bed, throwing on a pair of Nightwing boxers and the first black tee he finds. He rushes to Wally’s room and finds him sitting upright in his bed, panting heavily as he tries to keep himself still. He’s half dressed, and Dick can see the drops of sweat on his forehead and chest.

“Hey, hey,” Dick hurries towards the bedside. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

Wally buries his face in his hands. “Yeah, no. It’s fine. Bad dream, that’s all.”

Dick suddenly feels a pang of guilt. While his best friend has been dealing with nightmares, he’s been jerking off to him. He’s got to be crossing into deadly sins territory.

Dick holds Wally’s hand, and he knows not to let go this time, making sure he knows that he’s there for him. “It’s okay, it happens. I know what that feels like, but you’re okay now.”

Wally nods, pressing his lips together as he looks back up at his friend. “Yeah, I know. It’s just… hard. It doesn’t go away.”

“What doesn’t?” Dick asks.

“The feeling that I’m always running, trying to escape from something,” Wally answers. “I spent most of my time in the speedforce running, and yet it didn’t make me feel any faster, or stronger. It just wore me out, day by day, and I just feel… so powerless sometimes.”

Dick takes a breath, shifting closer towards Wally on the bed. He gently places a hand on his shoulder and starts stroking him. “You’re not going to get through trauma in a day, Wally. I’ve seen what it does to people, but I do know that you absolutely, and definitely will come out stronger. You just need a bit of time to heal. I know it took me a while when I was younger.”

“How’d you finally get over it?” Wally asks, green eyes tired but also curious.

“I don’t know if I ever really did,” Dick admits, and notices the disappointment on Wally’s face. “But I do know that I managed to rebuild my life, with the help of Bats, Alfred, and the never-ending list of growing family members. Some of them slowed down recovery, but, you know. Speaking of family, you spoken to yours yet?”

Wally shakes his head. “They know I’m back but, I just can’t right now. It’s just, so much. I feel like a total asshole.” 

“I get it. And you’re definitely not an asshole, no one thinks that,” Dick reassures him. Wally brings both his knees to his body and just leans into his knees.

“I hope not,” Wally says, then glances back at Dick. “Thanks for coming over, it means a lot to me. Sorry if I woke you up or anything.”

Dick feels guilty again, remembering what he had been up to prior to this. “It’s fine. No biggie, I’ll probably head off now anyway. We have like, four hours left to stay in bed.”

“Wait— I was uh, wondering if maybe you could stay here for a bit? If that’s weird then I totally get it, not obliged to babysit or anything. I just, kind of need company right now,” Wally says, voice wavering at the end.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Dick replies, “Absolutely.”

If he could make Wally feel better about anything, anything at all, he would do it in a heartbeat.

He crawls into Wally’s bed, being extra careful about giving him personal space, partly because he doesn’t know how much closeness Wally needs and also partly because he’s still feeling guilty about getting off to his friend while _he_ was battling trauma. Wally shifts to the corner of the bed next to the wall, giving Dick ample space to curl up next to him.

It feels… odd, being back here. Weirdly familiar, but definitely not in a bad way. He’s lying flat on his back, with Wally curled up towards him. He allows himself to bring his arm up over Wally’s head, and almost immediately, like he knows it by instinct, Wally lifts his head slightly so he can rest right on Dick’s collarbone. Dick’s arm slips comfortably under Wally’s neck, and that’s that.

He can feel Wally’s breath on his chest, steady and soft. He feels Wally drawing in a breath, as if he’s about to say something, but in the end he doesn’t. The last thing he remembers before fluttering off to sleep is the murmured words of ‘ _please don’t go_ ’ and Dick can only manage a hum in response, but it’s enough for Wally to hold him even tighter as they both settle in each other’s warmth.

-

His morning wakeup is a lot less violent than he had expected it to be. Wally’s gently shaking one of his shoulders, patiently waiting for a response. If it were Tim or Babs, staffs or tazers would probably be involved. He doesn’t want to get up, not really, but since it’s Wally and he’s just been nothing but nice to him in the wake of his return, he decides to make an effort.

“Morning,” Dick groggily mutters. “Is Canary coming?”

Wally chuckles and pats him on the head. “I just finished my session. It’s your turn now.”

Dick groans and rolls around in bed, while Wally makes an attempt at pulling off the blankets. Back into old habits? Dick tries to roll himself into as much blanket as possible because he is going to be a _burrito_ this morning, damn it. But Wally isn’t having any of it, and manages to get the sheets off, pull Dick off the bed, and make the bed in about thirty-seconds. Super-speed, super useful for doing that.

Wally seems to be extra chipper this morning, smiling at Dick as he’s standing in front of bed in his Nightwing boxers and half-pulled up black shirt. 

“You’re not going to counselling in that,” he says, speeding off to Dick’s room and coming back with a fresh pair of clothes. “Smart casual, or superhero? Sorry I don’t have the stripper outfit on hand, couldn’t find it in your wardrobe. Kind of solidifies my theory that you’re not an _actual_ cop, Grayson.”

Dick smiles, not realizing how much he’s missed this until now. “I think I’ll go with superhero, since you seemed to like the red so much the other day.”

“Good choice,” Wally says, handing over his Nightwing suit. “You do look hot in red.”

He’s usually not one to get flustered easily, because he almost always has the upper hand in flirting, but this time he didn’t see it coming and nearly drops his suit as he’s taking it off Wally’s hands. Wally doesn’t seem unfazed by what he’s said at all, as if he’s pulling a standard _Wal-man_ line, on Dick. Jesus. He’s horrified of what he’s going to get himself into at that meeting with Canary. 

“Uh, thanks,” Dick splutters, still trying to shake the red off his cheeks.

“You’re welcome. I’ll let you get to it, I’m going to go for a jog with Bart right now so, I’ll see you later?”

“Sounds good,” Dick smiles, internally glad that that’s over with.

Now, onto the next challenge. Canary. He manages to get changed quickly enough to only be two minutes late for his appointment. He’s usually never one to shy away from opening up, revealing his feelings, especially when he knows that he’s in a professional setting. But somehow today’s meeting is making him a lot more nervous than it should. It feels different.

“Good morning, Dick,” she says. “I hope it’s okay if I call you that.”

He nods. His whole secret identity thing had become useless over the years, especially with people like Tim and Babs swooping around and accidentally letting his name slip. Nowadays, it’s only important to keep that stuff away from the bad guys.

“So,” Canary continues, understanding that Dick’s silence is a form of compliance. “Why don’t you start by telling me how you’ve been, for the past three years? That’s a long time to be all by yourself.”

Dick leans forward in his seat, folding his hands on his knees. “It’s been… difficult. I mean, the crime fighting bit has been alright, I guess. It took me a while to learn how to handle situations by myself but Batman’s taught me enough for me to be able to face anything.”

“I see,” she says. “You’re strong, Dick, and confident. I admire that about you."

“Yeah,” Dick says, running a hand through his hair. “Sometimes not so much. Remember when I said that I didn’t want to be the Batman anymore? That I didn’t have that thing inside me, to sacrifice everything I have to do what’s right? That still lingers inside me. I mean, I love doing what I do and it feels so good being able to be able to stop criminals, bring justice, save lives and all that. But sometimes I come back home at night, alone, and I just wonder what’s it all for. The only sacrifice I’m making is to myself, but that doesn’t feel anywhere near as meaningful or important as it should be, because— I’m doing okay, and I’m not scared.”

“Do you feel that in order for your work to be valuable, you have to suffer through loss?”

“Yes,” Dick hisses. “I mean, no, but, I just don’t feel like a hero without having anything to lose. I mean, when Wally died—”

He stops himself. He shouldn’t be saying this, _revealing_ this to Canary. But he knows he has to, or what’s the point of this whole thing.

“Wally lost everything. He made the biggest sacrifice out of all of us, how am I ever supposed to repay that? I can never— will never be able to give him the same thing.”

“Dick,” Canary says, placing a hand onto his knee. “Wally made that sacrifice out of his own choice. He doesn’t ever expect you to repay that.”

“I know, I know, it’s not the literal sacrifice— ah, how do I even explain this. I want to be able to be the kind of guy that makes his sacrifice worth it. I want to give him the things he would have missed out on. That’s largely the reason why I came back, I wanted to have something to live for. People to live for. Especially with Wally’s return, I don’t think I can ever stay alone anymore.”

He breathes a sigh of relief after letting it all out. He was slightly surprised at the fact that those exact words came out. He’s not sure if he’s proud or terrified about admitting to Canary just how much he needed Wally. 

“It’s not wrong to have people worth fighting for,” she says. “It makes life a little more scary, definitely, but there’s absolutely no shame in wanting to offer a part of your life to someone. Especially if you care about him so much.”

Dick notices the sudden blunt approach that she’s taken, but doesn’t really mind. It makes him feel a little bit better, knowing that she understands. He knows it’s her job, but she is probably the most approachable member of the team, once you get to know her. No one really goes to Bats for life advice, unless they’re his kids. And Dick knows how that usually ends up.

Speaking of Bruce, Dick knows he should be reaching out to him right now. After his session with Black Canary, he decides to take some time out of his day to re-installing his computer in his old room. He connects to the highly encrypted BatNet, which is basically a fancy server that Babs created for the entire Bat family. He hasn’t been online for the past two years, and once he logs on he notices a whole lot of things that weren’t there before.

For starters, the members of the net have grown in numbers, no surprise there considering Bruce’s penchant for taking in as many Robins as the mansion can fill. There are a whole lot of software developments too, such as all-access mission cameras, a live database and tracking system for every villain on their watch list, along with a central group chat called: ‘THE MOTHER-NEST’. 

The group chat log goes back thousands of pages, and he decides to scroll down to the most recent activity to see what they’ve been up to. The last conversation was from just last night.

 **Damian:** _I know Dick Grayson has returned. I wish to schedule a meeting with him. I feel it is only fit for brothers to get to know each other. [19:13]_

 **Tim:** _Soz, no one wants u [19:14]_

 **Bruce:** _Dick needs time to integrate himself back into the team, allow him a bit of space. [19:19]_  

 **Steph:** _And what about this family? Doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of integrating going on :( :( [19:21]_  

 **Damian:** _That is why we must take the initiative. [19:22]_

 **Cass:** _Dick is a good person [19:28]_

 **Tim** : _His name spells out everything u need 2 know about him, LOL! [19:41]_

 **Barbara:** _Chill out, guys. He’s barely integrating with the team, so don’t feel left out. Dick only has <>side-eye emoji</> for one of us around here [19:58]_

 **Barbara:** _And it ain’t me btw! [19:58]_

 **Tim:** _Looooooooool [20:01]_

 **Tim:** _D boy is hopeless. Me and Kon came over 2 visit him and birdie was a big blue mess. [20:04]_

 **Damian:** _You mean ‘Conner and I’, imbecile. [20:05]_  

 **Steph:** _Ooooooo Dick’s got a new boo? <>embarrassed-monkey emoji</> Who is it? ;) [20:07]_

 **Bruce:** _You kids shouldn’t be discussing his personal life here. Let him open up to you on his own terms. [20:09]_

 **Cass:** _Privacy is important [20:09]_

 **Bruce:** _Yes, Cassandra. You understand. [20:10]_

 **Barbara:** _Don’t worry, babes. I’ll let you in on the deets soon xx [20:13]_

And this, is why secrets never stay hidden for long in the Bat Cave. Train a bunch of kids to become crime-fighting super detectives, what else would you expect? He presses his forehead and decides to message Babs personally about it.

 **Dick:** _Mind maybe not spilling all my secrets to everyone on the group chat? [11:41]_

 **Barbara:** _Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me. Never went on the BatNet once all these years and the second a little gossip comes up, you cry fowl [11:47]_

 **Barbara:** _Ha, get the pun [11:48]_  

 **Dick:** _Babs, I’ve made all the bird puns ever already. Don’t even try. [11:50]_  

 **Barbara:** _You’re certainly not trying hard enough… [11:54]_

 **Dick:** _What’s that’s supposed to mean??! [11:55]_

 **Barbara:** _Westie, your bestie [11:55]_

 **Barbara:** _Needy for speedy [11:55]_

Dick doesn’t have time for this, and decides to shut off his computer before Babs starts spamming again. What was she even doing online? Wasn’t she leading a search and rescue squad? Classic team, can barely manage themselves without a good leader.

He sits down on his bed, not really knowing how to spend the rest of his day. Wally’s busy running with Bart, off to who knows which part of the country, and most of the others are down on a mission. Maybe it’s time to start thinking about his own job too, check up on his mission in Blüdhaven. It’s been on pause for a while, and for good reason too, but with all-access computers at the mountain, and Babs’ new BatNet scanners, his job is about to be a whole lot easier. He does realize that this means opening himself up to more threats, potentially bad for many, many reasons. But if it’s what needs to be done, then there’s not much of a discussion to be had anyway.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a change in POV here, with Wally in the limelight! The other characters also get a little more attention, all of them trying to deal with this mess of a romance that's interfering with team business.

“So, tell me what it was like being in the speedforce? What did it look like? Was it hot, cold? Did you get to see the entire timestream in one gigantic space, kind of like the way I saw it when I travelled through time? Did time even exist in there? Or was it kind of like being in a glass room where you can see everything happening outside but no one can see what’s inside?”

Wally’s been craving a little more conversation lately, and with someone other than Dick or Canary. Bart, as it turns out, is the perfect candidate for just that.

“Woah, slow down there, kid. Barely getting my feet back on the ground, still need time to process!” Wally laughs, watching as Bart speeds across the pond in the park. He rushes behind him, dipping under the Marble Arch and watching the birds flock away from the trees.

“No problemo, buddy! It’s just— so good to have you back!” Bart screeches to a stop and gives Wally a big, tight hug right in the middle of a busy road. 

Wally pulls him off the streets and drags him off to a quieter area in the park. “Careful with that. Back from the dead, wouldn’t want to go back there so soon.”

“Gotcha,” Bart replies. “I totally understand the whole not-wanting-talk-about-it thing when it comes to traumatic experiences. Trust me, been there, done that.” He slows down for a moment, before sitting down beneath a tree.

Wally grabs a couple of apples hanging off from the branches and tosses them to Bart, who’s happily munching away. The two of them sit in silence, Wally deep in thought about the little speedster leaning back on the tree.

“Bart, I need to ask you something,” he finally says, breaking the silence as he picks up an apple from the pile on the ground. “What was it like, when _you_ were in the speedforce? Did they… talk to you?”

“Well, it was a little chilly and there were huge flashing images of everything in the entire continuity of space and time and— wait, did you just say that they _talked_ to you?”

“Yeah, I mean… they showed me visions and stuff, from the past, and the future, and stuff in between, like dreams but real. It felt like stuff from my subconscious, actually.”

“Go on…” Bart says, raising his eyebrows and sitting perfectly still for the first time today.

It’s not that he doesn’t want to explain, it’s just that Wally doesn’t know how. The fear of sounding like a complete idiot, or just plain out of his mind— is taking over his primal need for communication and the need to share his feelings. He’s grown a lot more comfortable with that over the years, and Dick being an open book in their relationship has taught him a lot about introspection and self-expression. He remembers the first time he said ‘I love you’ to Dick, and the major freakout he had almost immediately after.

_“Hey Walls, think fast!” Dick said as he backflipped off the top of the stairs and went swooping down the middle of the staircase._

_They were in a hospital building, just took out a couple of criminals on the roof and had to take the stairs back down due to the sheer amount of smoke on the rooftop. M’gann’s Bio-Ship wasn’t able to hover close enough for them get a speedy exit, and Conner already had the criminals chained up until the smoke cleared._

_Wally didn’t know if Dick had a death wish, or if he just thought it was funny, but he’d never switched on to panic mode so quickly. He zoomed down all thirty flights of stairs and with an extra point-three millisecond to spare, he managed to catch Dick right in his arms, cape flouncing right behind him._

_He set Dick down until he’s back up on his feet, then yanked off his mask. “What were you thinking? You could’ve gotten yourself killed, argh, you are such a—”_

_“Dick?” he laughed, unfazed by it all. “Heard that one before. Just wanted to have a bit of fun, I knew you’d catch me.”_

_So Wally had been right. He eases up a little and wipes off the sweat on his forehead, still panting from the adrenaline and the shock. “Trust me that much, huh?”_

_Dick smiled. “Obviously. How come you never get scared when we’re out there fighting nuclear-powered villains but had the freak out of your life when I decide to do a little circus trick?”_

_Wally didn’t really know, if he was being honest. It was something he had never thought about before. Being on missions felt like walking through a play-by-play for a video game, with enough faith it’s easy to see the outcome. Stakes were high but there was a sense of security forged within the team’s deciscions._

_Being in love, however, was the most incomprehensible thing he had ever experienced. Even more than magic. Wally would lose his mind ruminating over his relationship with Dick. How could it be so perfect? Did he really love him? Was it meant to last? Or was it just another teenage romance that would crash and burn the second things moved too fast, and boy, did he have a habit of that._

_“You know what, nevermind. Sorry if it was a bad joke,” Dick finally said, clearly uncomfortable by the silence he’d caused. He looks at the floor but Wally takes his hand in his and notices Dick’s eyelashes fluttering back up._

_“Hey, I caught you. No harm done. Plus, you’ve always been a show-off,” he laughs. “But that’s not meant to be a license to do anything stupid, whether on a mission or anywhere else because I love you, and stuff like that worries the hell out of me. Enough to get even this heart racing faster than usual.”_

_The words had come out easily, and without a second thought, but Dick picks up on it the second he says it and no amount of subtletly would have been able to hide it. Wally, of course, tries to keep it cool by acting as if he hadn’t just said something super intimate to his boyfriend, because, really, who does that? Dick wasn’t about to let it pass that easily, though._

_“Uh, Walls. Did I just hear that right when you told me you loved me?” Dick asked, even though he definitely knew the answer to that._

_“Yeah, you did,” Wally said. “Kinda hoping you’d return the sentiment now, or I’d be standing here looking like an idiot.”_

_“You’re already an idiot,” Dick said, placing both hands on Wally’s face and slowly pulling them closer to each other. “But you know I love you, Wally.”_

_They kissed after that, for a little longer than they should have considering that M’gann was ready with the Bio-Ship, and the rest of the team were trying to radio them in because neither of them had been responsive to the telepathic cues. Wally smiled as he felt Dick’s mouth on his, warm and soft, and Dick’s words lingered in his mind like sweet, sweet bliss afterwards._

_He knew he did._

What he didn’t know, though, was how long that love would last. Or how long those words would haunt him even years after. Even after Artemis, who he thought he would share the rest of his life with, thinking _this is forever, this is where I get it right_.

He didn’t. And if he had the courage to tell Bart all of that right now, then he might have a shot at rebuilding what he had with Dick. Instead he just told him about how the speedforce brought back _certain_ memories to light, some more than others, as if sending him a recurring message that they wanted to drill into his brain. He’s probably not going crazy, but if he acts on those superstitious (but almost inexplicably scientifically based) experiences, then he might just be?

Argh, telling Canary about this entire thing this morning was a whole lot easier. She told him that even though she couldn’t possibly understand his experience, it seemed to hold some merit. He talked about his history with Dick, which they’d never really explicitly shared with any members of the League back then. The rest of the team knew, but it wasn’t the longest of relationships, or the most solid, and he had moved on with Artemis almost immediately after that so it felt like a transient moment in history more than anything.

_“Those fleeting moments in transition are very often the most important,” she said earlier. “At the time, they might appear out of place, incompatible with the direction that your life is moving towards. But once you’ve found your footing, settled down, you’ll be able to look at those moments with a lot more clarity and focus. It’s up to you to decide if they’re worth revisiting.”_

Yes, yes and _yes_. Wally had left the therapy-session room with so much confidence, so much hope that he would be able to re-kindle the romance, but within a few hours his anxieties had slowly crept back in. If he was going to rebuild something out of nothing, he would have to start with his confidence.

“Hey amigo, totally loved listening to your stories and all that— but it’s getting late and we better head back to HQ! Good thing they’ve got zeta tubes across the pond as well,” Bart says, standing up and brushing the grass off the back of his suit.

Wally can’t help but be proud every time he looks at Bart in his Kid Flash suit. No one could have carried the legacy better than him, but he did feel a slight twinge of discomfort at the fact that even after all these years, he’s still stuck in the same old shoes. Even Dick had gotten an upgrade from Robin to Nightwing. Maybe Canary was right, maybe he had grown out of Kid Flash, but what did that mean for him and his place on the team?

Nothing came with easy answers nowadays, not even after his life-changing time in the speedforce. He tries not to think about how that first exchange of love between them was the thing that kept him going for three whole years, tries not to think about the fact that without Dick, he might not even have been back here. He tries not to think about the endless days he spent running, untethered from reality, with Dick’s voice ringing in his ears saying, ‘You know I love you, Wally.’ He tries not to think about how it never felt like a memory, it felt real.

He doesn’t know how telepathy works, and maybe he should ask M’gann about it. There were just… moments that he couldn’t explain in the speedforce, when memories felt like thoughts, images of the past felt like open communication between minds. He couldn’t tell Dick about this, but he saw flashing images of his _entire_ childhood in there, from the days of Haly’s Circus to Robin, to being on the team and to the days of mourning Wally’s loss. He’s seen it all, and if that was meant to be a gift— it felt awful. Like an intrusion, almost. He tries to shake away the thoughts on the way back with Bart, and by the time they reach Mount Justice, he finds that the rest of the team has already returned from their mission.

“Ah, good to be back!” Bart says, “Like our new cave by the way? I mean, old one got blown up and stuff, but that’s the great thing about this planet, there are an endless amount of islands in the great big blue! Speaking of blue, I gotta go check on Jaime. Movie night tonight, he promised.”

And with a wink, he’s gone. Wally heads towards the team after the debrief, approaching M’gann as cautiously as he can. He taps her on the shoulder and she turns around instantly, beaming when she realizes it’s him. 

“Wally! Hey, we haven’t had a chance to catch up,” she says, hugging him tight. He’s forgotten how strong Martians were, and she blushes when she hears a shoulder pop. “Oops, sorry. I’m still getting used to you being here.” 

“Yeah, me too,” he laughs. “Hey, M’gann. I wanted to ask you something, it’s about your telepathy? I heard you were having problems with it for the past few months and I was kinda wondering if, um… that had anything to do with me.”

She brushes a lock of her hair on the side and twirls it on her finger. Her hair’s gone shoulder length now, but not as long as it used to be. M’gann bites her lip before answering.

“I— I think it might have been. I’ve been working on my telepathy for the past few years, rebuilding my confidence, pushing myself (to acceptable limits, of course) and I think at one point it got strong enough for me to… sense you in the speedforce. I didn’t know what was jamming my signal, which is why my links became weaker with the team. Took me a while, and a little help, to realize that that was you.”

Woah. “So, you heard me in there.”

“Well, not exactly… it was like static interference, but because I wasn’t tuned to the right frequency I didn’t know what it was. I’m sorry I didn’t figure it out sooner.”

“No! Don’t apologize, jeez, M’gann. It’s amazing enough that you heard me, I mean, I _think_ I might have heard Dick in the speedforce but that could be totally bogus,” he splutters out the last part of the sentence. M’gann eyes him curiously and he sighs before saying, “Okay, I was kinda wondering how telepathy works. I think I might have had… some form of a connection to Dick in there, and it’s driving me crazy because like, how do I know if that’s real or just my mind making up stuff—”

“Wally,” M’gann says, placing a hand on his shoulder. “I don’t know a whole lot about the speedforce, or frankly anything at all, but I don’t think it takes a telepath to see that you and Dick share something special.”

Wally’s not used to his friends being upfront to him about relationship advice, especially with Dick. M’gann had been one of the more supportive ones earlier on, and Wally just hadn't appreciated her enough. The breakup was tough on the team, with Kaldur and Zatanna had supporting mostly Dick, Conner being impartial and Artemis and M’gann looking out for Wally. Artemis’ support developed into something more, but M’gann’s dependable friendship was something he took for granted at the time.

“You’re awesome,” he says, this time pulling her into a suffocating hug. He knows she isn’t suffering nearly as much as he was.

“You too, Wally,” she giggles as they let go. “Now, don’t you think you have a bit of catching up to do with someone?”

“Right,” Wally says. “Time to run. I’ll see you later Megs!”

He waves her off before speeding back to Nightwing’s room. Alright, no bullshit excuses this time, no beating around the bush, just straight to the chase. He’s going to tell him. He’s going to tell him— 

“Tim?” Wally didn’t expect to find a different Robin in the room, accompanied by Conner, Barbara and Zatanna. “Um… did I just crash the party?”

Zatanna sighs. “Wally, do you know where Dick went?”

“What, no! I don’t, I just came here to see him…” he trails off, watching Barbara furiously typing in the computer. It finally clicks. “Has he ran off?”

“He went off-site _without_ Barbara’s permission,” Tim grits.

“Oh, let it go, Tim. I’m not mad about that,” she waves him off, still trying to get a lock on his location on the screen. “Dick can go wherever he wants to, but if he is where I think he is, then that’s bad news.”

“Okay, so where do you think he is?” Wally asks. 

“He’s been talking about an undercover mission in Blüdhaven in the letters he wrote to me a couple months back. He’s been saying the situation hasn’t been stable enough to go back, since his cover was blown last time, but it seems like he’s just decided to jump on one of our jets and fly there by himself.”

“He’s such a mess,” Zatanna sighs, pressing a hand to her temple.

“Tell me about it,” Barbara replies, and slides an arm around her waist. She pulls her in closer, Zatanna resting her head on her shoulder while Barbara finally manages to pinpoint his exact location, as well as reveal details of his enemies. “Your locator spell really helped, Zee, thanks.”

“We really need to get out soon,” Zatanna says. “I don’t want all our time together to be spent babysitting Dick.” 

Barbara smacks a kiss on her lips. “And it won’t be. So, which one of you guys are willing to take one for the team and find him?”

Just as she turns around, Wally’s already long gone. Somehow, none of them are surprised.

She gives Tim a look. “You gonna be the third wheel?”

Tim looks like he wants nothing more than to hide away in a box forever, safe from the disturbances of the world and of course, Dick Grayson. But he sighs and caves in the end. “If it means keeping them both alive.”

Conner finally speaks. “Be careful, Wally’s still not stable enough after what happened… and neither is Dick, to be honest. I gotta stay with Beta for the next mission. Mal can go back on the field and fill your place temporarily.”

“I’m not worried about him, it’s just, the two of them… they’re so difficult,” Tim groans.

“They’ve always been like that,” Conner says, giving him a reassuring smile. “Trust me, I’ve been through it once.”

“It might take you a while to get there but, use the tools on the BatNet and you should be able to find them just fine,” Barbara says.

Tim nods. Ugh. He wishes Kaldur was here, six months of Atlantean magic training didn’t seem like much when he had first announced it, but now everything’s falling apart, leaving him and Babs to deal with a brewing _romance_ of all things. How did he ever handle all of this? Tim can never understand. First mission: find Dick and Wally. Second mission: get them together for god’s sake before the entire world suffers another chrysalis scenario due to their awfully-plotted game of push and pull.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dick discovers that Artemis is after the same thing as him after a run-in at the Bludhaven police precinct.  
> More, um, significant developments on the Dick/Wally front.

Dick Grayson had been spending the past two years preparing for the mission of his life. The mission that, depending on the outcome, would either save or destroy an entire city. He’s never known how Bruce did it, how he just carried the weight of Gotham on his shoulders like it was an extension of himself. He never thought he’d be able to do it too, but it turned out to be not a question of _if_ the day ever came, but when.

Blüdhaven has been overtaken by Chemo, or some or Chemo-variant, that is. Chemo had been a giant radioactive monster that spread toxins all over the city two days ago, but now there are a multitude of smaller Chemo-blots with a list of more complex chemicals. The entire police force had been gassed up, drugged, and immobile for the past week. Not long after the first effects wear off, the second phase is going to kick in: twenty-four hours until a complete mind wipe. The real kicker? It’s Mark Desmond’s son, Blockbuster Jr. aka Roland Desmond, who’s been behind all this. Head of the police force, intel source for Dick, until his cover was blown one day.

Well, at least they’ll be no need for secret identities anymore. Dick breaks into the police office, lowering himself into Desmond’s room to see if there are any clues left as to where he went. He straps on his gas mask and starts shuffling through his desk.

Arrest letters, pens, criminal data, nothing to indicate supervillain-status. He knows he doesn’t have much time, considering how he has a jet parked on the roof. Not like the bad guys won’t notice or anything, no.

He walks out of the office and into the rest of the precinct and sighs. Cops are down everywhere, but in just a matter of a day they’re going to turn into mindless Blockbuster clones. He bends down and picks up a piece of paper from the uniform pockets of one of his former colleagues, Jana. It’s a list of power plants and factories around the city which could potentially hold a large body of chemicals to form the monsters. He had made a similar list once, and holds onto it to cross check for later.

As he walks back into Desmond’s office, he hears the sound of a door creaking open behind him. He turns around and throws one of his Batarangs straight ahead, only for it to be hit by an arrow mid-air. It falls down with a feeble clunk. 

“Artemis!” Dick gasps, trying to keep his voice to a whisper. It’s been so long since he’s seen her. Out of the entire team, she’s the only one who’s managed to stay even more off-grid than he has. Even Tim’s stalking skills couldn’t find her, or maybe he just respected her enough to give her space.

She brings a palm up onto her temple and holds a fist out at him. “It’s Tigress!” she hisses. He knows what it’s like for people to get names wrong. It took the team about six months of accidentally calling him ‘Robin’ until the name ‘Nightwing’ started settling onto their tongues.

“Right, right,” Dick says, breaking into a smile. “Sorry, it’s been a while. How have you been?”

“Fine, but can we please get out of here now? Not the prime spot for a conversation, especially with your huge jet parked up there for everyone to see.”

“Is that why you came?” Dick grins. “Worried that the bad guys might catch me?”

She scoffs, and Dick can see a twitch of a smile under that mask. “What? Please, no. I’m here on my own business, but if you’re after the same thing as I am then this could be fun.” 

He sees a small smirk forming on her lips, and he can’t help but to feel excited at the prospect of their team-up. Just like old times, then. Out of the entire team, Artemis was the only one who knew him almost as well as Wally did. Sure, he was pissed when they ended up together not even a _week_ after him and Wally broke up, but that was his fault anyway. Can’t blame her for his mistakes, and after all, they were so _good_ to each other. That’s something that can’t be said for the two of them.

_“You just don’t get it, do you? You sabotaged the mission, the team, and yourself!” Dick yelled back in Mount Justice. They had just landed the Bio-Ship and their team briefing had been heating up._

_“I said I’m sorry, okay?” Wally said, looking down. “I was just trying to help.”_

_“You were trying to get yourself killed! I thought I made myself clear: wait for instructions, and do not engage unless stated.”_

_“Yeah, but you didn’t really mention what to do in case you were taken hostage!” Wally raised his voice. “And no, I didn’t think the answer was to just leave you there!” He looked around the room for approval for the others, but most of them stayed silent._

_“Wally’s right. He might have accidentally tripped the security system and tipped us off, but he was trying to save you,” Artemis said. She’s trying to keep calm, Dick can tell, but it’s still not doing anything to help him._

_“I didn’t need help,” Dick gritted through his teeth. “If I did, I would have radio-ed in you guys.”_

_“Yeah, well how were we supposed to know that you’d go running off on your own, ‘pretending’ to be captured? You just said that you wanted to scan the area. I know you’ve been making an effort to communicate more, but you’ll need to do better before taking it out on us,” Conner added, and he clearly wasn’t bothered about hiding his anger._

_“I believe we all made mistakes today that could have been fixed with better communication. And as for our enemies escaping, tracking them down will be our new priority, even if it takes months like it did last time,” Aqualad added, and by the time Dick had realized how he had overreacted, Wally had already zipped off._

“Sooo,” Artemis says, drawing out the word on her lips as he flies the jet to his hideout spot. “How’s Wally been?”

Dick really hadn’t been looking forward to this conversation, even though he knew it was coming. He isn’t even sure what her take on the whole thing is. Wally’s just told him that _she knows_ , but what does that even mean? She knows and she’s fine with it, she knows but she’s secretly upset about the whole thing, openly upset, ready to slice his throat open at any given moment?

“Uh, he’s been fine?” Not to mention the whole damn thing is just plain _awkward_.

She takes off her mask and sets it down on her lap. “Oh, come on, Dick. You know you can talk to me. I’ve moved on, so you don’t have to worry about it being weird or anything, so just spill. Has he told you yet?”

“Told me what?” Dick says, suddenly turning his head towards her. His fingers clench around the control wheel.

Artemis’ eyes widen slightly, but she then composes herself again before saying anything. “Look, he came to be before all this happened… well, through the speedforce or whatever. Has he given you that same speech?”

“Yeah. I kind of shot him down, though,” Dick replies. “Let’s just say I was a little bit skeptical at first.” 

Artemis snorts. “Trust me, if I hadn’t seen him come out of that vortex thing with my own two eyes I would have called out his bullshit too. But it’s not. It’s real, Dick. And you gotta believe what he told you.”

“He hasn’t really said much about it, actually. Some stuff about rearranging his priorities, realizing what was important to him and all that.”

She nods slowly towards him and raises an eyebrow. It takes him a while to turn to look at her, because she isn’t saying anything. He quickly realizes that she doesn’t have to.

“Oh.” Dick can’t believe it took him that long to figure this out.

“Big ‘oh’ for you, Grayson. Jeez, all suited up in your fancy new black and red outfit, and you’re still just as dense as you used to be.”

“Hey, Wally said he liked the red on me,” he retorts.

“Mm, I’m sure he did.” She raises her eyebrows in mock bewilderment.

Dick lowers his voice. “He kind of also said that I looked hot in it.”

Artemis folds her arms and crosses her legs, giving him the full-on Tigress stare now. “Really? And you’ve never considered that hey, he might be trying to hit on you or anything.”

“To be honest, no. I really didn’t think I had a chance. I mean, I fucked up real bad, Artemis. You remember how it went.”

Suddenly, the look on her face softens. “Yeah, I do.” She leans in and folds her hands on her knees before talking back to him.

“You can’t keep beating yourself up after what happened. That was years ago, Dick. Wally’s moved on, you haven’t. I know you have a tendency to be super critical of yourself, which is good when it comes to missions, but this isn’t a mission. This is _Wally_ we’re talking about. He’s like, the most forgiving person out there. You don’t just get to sulk in a corner by yourself brooding like, oh I don’t know, some angst-filled teenager when the other person doesn’t even have anything against you. Get over yourself.”

Wow. No one’s ever talked to him like that before, at least not in a while. Babs used to be the one trying to drag him out of his own self-pity, but he hasn’t been around enough to listen to her lectures. Zatanna had been mostly patient with him, and Tim had never wanted a part in dealing with his emotions. The only other person who cared about him enough to tell him the truth, even when it was hard, was Wally.

“Thanks, Artemis. I needed that,” Dick says, and he knows that she’s right.

“I know I probably didn’t handle things the best way either. I wasn’t the best person to look after him, I guess. I took advantage of the fact that he was heartbroken and wanted a rebound, I didn’t even think about how that would affect you. Or maybe deep down I did, but I just didn’t want to think about it.” 

“Hey, you definitely weren’t a rebound. He loved you, Artemis,” Dick frowns.

“I know, I know. Don’t get me wrong, I loved him too! But it was just, you know… love, and it’s not always enough, maybe not. Not when you’re fighting against a million other things every day, saving the world. I was so devastated when he left, but I’ve been on my own ever since, and I’ve been okay.” 

Dick thinks about the last part for a while. Thinks about Artemis, who lost nearly everything, has managed to feel good about her life. He remembers what Bruce had said once: _I found comfort in solitude, Dick. You will too._

The thing is, even after all these years, all this time spent trying to be the person he thought he was, or wanted to be, he still hasn’t found comfort in that. And maybe there’s a reason for it.

They spend another couple of minutes on the plane before Dick lands it on his warehouse by the port harbour. He remembers when the original Mount Justice had been destroyed and they used this as a temporary hideout space. He’s impressed that it’s managed to hold up all these years, and not once has he ever been tracked down here. He blew his cover and his operation, but he didn’t want to risk losing the last thing he had tied to the team. This was his home. Paris had been a temporary refuge, but at the end of the day this was the closest thing he had to being back in Mount Justice.

Upon landing on top of the warehouse, Dick notices a group of Chemo-blots surrounding the area. He’s pretty sure they’re not after him specifically, because they’re everywhere, but he does need to get rid of them if he’s ever going to get inside.

“Could you try to disarm them from the roof? Once the perimeter is clear I’ll try to get us in and turn on the security system.”

“Got it,” she says, picking up her set of arrows.

“When did you start shooting arrows again, by the way? I thought that wasn’t a Tigress thing.” Dick smirks.

“Dad’s always coming up with ideas on how to ‘diversify’ my gear. It’s stupid, but it helps on some missions. Like when we’re dealing with a bunch of chemical blots all over the city, for example.”

They put on their gas masks and hop out of the jet. Artemis gets straight to work shooting foam arrows at the Chemo-blots, freezing them before the liquid spreads. She’s hitting them at an unbelievable rate, but a few of them materialize into gas as the fumes start rising up. They also start creating a fog over the roof, and Dick can see the chemicals eating away at the outer layering of his plane. Well, technically, the plane he stole.

“Babs is going to kill me for this,” he groans, before jumping off the roof in a quadruple somersault.

“Showoff!” Artemis yells from the top off the roof. She’s still neutralizing seventy percent of the Chemo-blots, and that’s enough for him to unlock the security code to the warehouse without having to worry about toxic blobs devouring his skin.

“Just get down here!” Dick yells back. Artemis shoots a grappling hook onto the edge of the roof and manages to lower herself fast enough before a wave of blots merge into one and start moving towards the door.

She shoots three freeze-foam arrows towards it as they hurry inside and shut the door behind them. Dick is immediately on his computer, installing the security systems on the warehouse so it doesn’t get disintegrated in about two seconds.

“What are you doing?” she asks him.

“Providing another layer of titanium coating to the building, it’s the only material that these things won’t eat through. The layers are coming into place now, but ah, there’s static interference in the front door.”

“Those things don’t have electromagnetic capabilities,” Artemis says. “I’ve checked.”

“I know,” Dick replies. “Which is why…” He doesn’t even manage to finish his sentence before he hears a vibrating noise from the front door, like a deep hum of static.

Artemis draws her arrow towards it but before the two of them can react a flash of lightning sparks through, and Wally is phasing through the door. He’s coughing and collapsing to his knees on the floor. Artemis runs to hold him, but Dick grabs her arm and pulls her away.

“Wait! The toxins,” Dick says. “Wally, no offence to you but you’re probably highly hazardous right now so you’ll need to take off your clothes and head to the shower downstairs to decontaminate.”

“What about the gas? He’s breathed in some of it,” Artemis asks.

Wally shakes his head, and Dick picks up on it quickly. “No, his metabolism will get it out of his system. He’ll be fine. Just try to get out of that suit as fast as you can, it’s not Chemo-proof.” 

Wally nods, still coughing. Dick and Artemis squirm as they watch him trying to take off his chemical-stained suit. He finally manages to get out of it and zips downstairs.

“You were staring,” Artemis sings, shaking her head as she watches Dick acting all flustered.

“We’ve both seen him naked!” Dick points out, but she just shrugs him off.

“So rude. Hand me over some of your gloves, I’ll clean this up.” He points towards one of the cabinets in the room and she walks off. 

Dick decides to go downstairs to check on Wally. He’s stepping out of the shower in a towel, with his hair wet and steam just coming off of his skin. Dick’s forgotten how gorgeous he was like this.

“Mind if I borrow some of your clothes?” Wally asks, cheeks flushing. “That was a good shower but, I’d rather not be wandering around your warehouse naked.”

Dick pauses, embarrassed that he’d completely forgotten to bring clothes. “Right, sorry. All my stuff is upstairs, you could come with me if you like?”

“Sure,” Wally smiles, and they head up to his room.

“I’ve managed to fix up the place a little. The last time we were here with the team, we only had curtains as walls. Can’t do much about the limited space though, I hope this will be okay.”

Dick is rummaging through his drawers to find something for Wally to wear. Preferably, something that doesn’t have the Nightwing logo on it. Wally doesn’t exactly have to indulge in his own vain tendencies. He finally manages to pull out a white t-shirt and a pair of black boxers— standard Wally clothing.

“Thanks,” Wally says as he hands him over the clothes. “Uh, you don’t have to look if you don’t want to.”

“I don’t—” damn it, why did Wally have to phrase it like that. “I mean, I don’t care either way. We’ve known each other long enough and—”

“Okay, I can’t do this anymore,” Wally says, throwing his hands up and taking one step closer towards him. If he weren’t standing in a towel right now, Dick would probably be a lot more nervous. 

“I know things between us haven’t always been perfect over the years, but god, Dick, I’ve never really gotten over us. I just felt like we needed to address the elephant in the room here, and obviously, with me and my big mouth, I’m just gonna say it. You were the reason I got out of the speedforce, you were the reason I stayed alive and sane in there. Memories of you, visions of you, it’s like I could feel you in there, every second of every day. And when I got back I wanted to tell you, but I got scared. I wasn’t sure if how you’d take it. Time was nothing in there but here? I’ve missed out on three years of your life, man, we were barely even dating for six months! And I know it didn’t last long but I still think about it every day, think about how it would’ve turned out if we hadn’t been complete dicks to each other back then.”

“I think we were both just generally dicks at that time,” Dick finally responds. He isn’t sure how to tackle all of those points, especially not at once, but he tries to start by being honest. “I think about you every day, too.”

“Yeah?” Wally smiles, and there’s the little crack in his voice that just makes Dick melt every single time.

“Yeah,” Dick says, and fuck it, he’s not going to try to talk this one out again. He drops the clothes in his hands and pulls Wally in for a kiss, hands wrapped around his back and his head and oh, god, this is nothing like he’s imagined it to be all those years. It’s even better.

Wally’s still warm from the shower, and his skin feels damp and smooth, with Dick’s fingers digging into his back. His hair’s soft and still slightly wet, but Dick doesn’t even care right now that there’s water dripping over his nose or that he’s stepping over his own clothes on the floor. He’s just listening to the sweet sound of Wally whimpering in his mouth, with the soft whispers of his name, said over and over again. 

“I’ve missed you so much,” Wally whines, stumbling back until he’s sitting on the edge of bed. Dick happily straddles him in his lap, and Wally brings his hands to his back, sliding them up until he’s able to unzip his outfit.

“You were the reason I couldn’t stand being alone all these years,” Dick says, running his fingers through Wally’s hair as he looks at him, earnest and adoring.

They spend several more minutes kissing, even with Dick’s outfit half-unzipped and Wally’s towel slowly coming off, they stay locked into their position. Dick’s legs are wrapped tightly around Wally’s lap, and Wally’s holding him in place, because that’s more important than anything right now. After so much time apart, neither of them could bear losing the other again. 

Wally spreads his legs open and Dick uses the opportunity to unfold the towel underneath him, as it lies flat on the bed. He pushes Wally down gently and they both shuffle backwards onto the bed. Dick runs his fingers along Wally’s chest, it’s even more impressive than it used to be.

“Taking your time?” Wally asks, stretching his neck and peering down at Dick.

“A little bit,” Dick admits. He can feel Wally’s stomach clenching and places a palm to try to feel the rhythm of his muscles. It’s maybe a little obvious, but he’s just trying to show as much appreciation as he can in the moment, and fuck, he’s appreciating all of this.

He finally works his way down and holds onto his cock, gripping the shaft and tugging a little bit. He does a couple more tentative strokes until he hears Wally gasping, a low moan following after. Dick carefully wraps his lips around the tip, tongue gliding under his length. Wally’s not having it any longer, and grabs Dick by the head. He doesn’t push or anything (and it’s not like Dick would mind), but he’s just trying to get a grip on himself and if that’s not attractive than Dick doesn’t know what is.

He takes in Wally’s cock by its full length, sucking until he’s managed to get a rhythm going. Wally’s hands tighten around his head, grabbing tufts of his hair and fuck, that’s hot. He slides one of his hands along his thighs and holds him in place by the hips while he’s going to town.

“Dick…” Wally moans. “Fuck. You’re so good at that.”

He tries not to get distracted by the compliment, and starts jerking twice as quickly as he did before, hand moving in tandem with his mouth. Jesus, he thinks he can feel Wally’s cock vibrating _inside_ him. That’s only happened once before, when they had sex for the first time and Wally came after about a minute. But to actually feel every inch of it in his mouth, in contact with tongue and cheek and everything else, fuck, it’s making his own cock twitch.

Trying to get a handle on _himself_ now, Dick manages to finish off Wally before he cums himself. That would be embarrassing, but he does have a talent for getting off without any contact. Well, at least Zatanna used to tell him that it was a talent, but then again she was into some weird shit. Wally probably wouldn’t appreciate it as much.

“Fuck, that was amazing,” Wally pants, as Dick licks off the rest of Wally’s cum on his cock. “You don’t happen to have any condoms, do you?”

“Bottom left drawer,” Dick says, peeling off his clothes. Wally manages to get the box even before Dick even finishes undressing.

“Need some help?” Wally smiles, putting the box down on the bed.

Dick laughs in bewilderment. “How are you doing this? Even I’m exhausted from that, you shouldn’t be moving right now.”

“You’ve always been a big flop after sex,” Wally grins, face still buzzing with afterglow. They both manage to take off Dick’s costume and after putting the condom on, Wally positions himself on top of Dick.

“Wait, do you need prep?” Dick asks, rubbing the cheeks of Wally’s ass.

Wally just tosses it aside with a smile. “Nah, I’ve been doing that myself the past couple days.”

“Oh,” Dick says. He definitely didn’t expect that. Maybe now he can feel slightly less guilty about that other night. Maybe Artemis was right, he kind of does need to stop beating himself up over every little thing.

Wally grabs some lube, for good measure (and maybe to ease Dick’s concerns a little bit) before he lowers himself onto Dick, cock slowly pushing in. Dick watches his face scrunch a little bit, but he’s not in pain. He knows that look, and he knows that Wally’s feeling good.

Dick had never been the type of bottom who would just lie still, and that works to Wally’s advantage. With all his super speed, he’s awful at keeping his rhythm and pacing when he gets excited, so Dick holds him in place while helping with the thrusts. His hips were built for all sorts of things, and he’s always been sure that sex was pretty high up that list.

Now, Wally’s getting hard again. He’s always had too fast of a refractory period for anyone to handle, but Dick manages to jerk him off while still thrusting into him. His free hand slides onto his waist, pushing him down every time he pushes his hips up. Wally’s grabbing onto the sheets, trying to keep himself together, and all Dick can think about is how lucky he’s gotten to have _this_ in front of him. Wally West, in all his naked glory, gorgeous and sweating and just, perfect.

By the time Dick finally cums, Wally’s also on the edge of his second orgasm, and a few strokes is enough to send him over the edge again. He unhooks his leg off of Dick’s body and runs off to grab them some wet towels. By the time Wally comes back (and he’s only been gone for less than thirty seconds), Dick’s already curled up in bed, sheets wrapped around him, condom neatly wrapped in tissue and binned.

“You really haven’t changed one bit,” Wally says, laughing as he sets the towels on his desk. “Also, I know you probably want nothing but to sleep for the next ten hours after that, because, god, that was amazing. But I ran into Artemis outside and she tells me that you’re about to have a couple of guests soon, so. Be a good host and maybe not just stay here lying naked in bed?”

Dick mumbles in his pillow, not moving. Wally leans in, “Sorry, what was that? I really can’t hear you.”

He lifts his face off the pillow and rubs his eyes open. “Timmm,” he groans.

“Right! I forgot to mention. Babs, Zatanna and Tim were all tracking you down and I managed to speed over here before they finished talking. Guess I should’ve stayed for the briefing, might have known I’d run into a toxic waste spill. But yeah, we’re all here to help you, Dick.”

“So you didn’t come all this way just for sex?” Dick finally sits up, smiling.

“Nope. But we can definitely have a lot more of that once we save this city,” Wally replies.

“Deal,” Dick says, and for the first time in years, it feels like nothing else could go wrong. It’s probably worth remembering that being with Wally has always made him feel like he’s on top of the world, but it’s also the place where he’s most vulnerable. The higher you are, the harder you fall, and all that.

It won’t be like that this time. He’s practically back with the team now, his friends, family, and wasn’t that the problem all these years? The reason why he hasn’t been able to feel a sense of achievement, no matter what he did. He’s not alone anymore, so what could possibly go wrong?


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay in writing this, it's been a pretty busy month - but onto the mission now!

“Alright, so is everyone clear on mission instructions?” Dick asks as the briefing wraps up. Tim arrived with new leads on where Desmond might be, courtesy of Babs’ intel.

“Yes boss! Split up, find the bad guy, then catch the bad guy and save the city!” Bart salutes him as Tim gives him a noticeable side-glare. He’s been all grumpy since he found out that Bart had stowed away with him on the plane, but everyone else seemed to find it pretty funny. Seeing Tim’s face when Bart came speeding out of the plane might have been the comedic highlight of the evening.

He remembers all those missions way back when, when Tim was the one who used to stow away with him, or Batman. There's just something about all of them, everyone on the team has this do first-think later attitude when it comes to saving each other. It's simultaneously a blessing and a curse.

There’s a lot of pressure on them this evening, especially for Dick. It’s nice to spread the burden a little bit— after all, that’s what a team’s for. He’s never been one to depend on other people, but when it comes to these guys, their reliability is a constant, never a question. They all had jumped on the opportunity to get involved in this mission, no questions asked, no terms needed. That’s what makes them family, but that’s also what scares him.

“We need to cook up an antidote for the Chemo-venom in the next twenty hours, before this city turns completely immobile,” Tim says, and Dick nods. Tim’s always been extremely attentive to the details of a mission, and thank god for that.

“Tigress and I will head to the underground waste site down in central, Tim and Kid Flash— you two will be going to the riverside chemical factory on the other side of town.” Dick displays the holographic maps on screen. “Those two places are our best bet to find Desmond.”

“Where’s Wally going?” Bart asks, and at that exact moment the Wall-man himself comes speeding into the room.

“Hey guys! Sorry that took a while, the ring didn’t exactly come with instructions when Barry gave it to me,” Wally says, and there’s a drop of silence until he notices everyone staring at him. “Okay, I know it’s a little different but tell me it’s not that bad.”

“No—not at all,” Dick blurts out, and okay, there’s a full-fledged grin spreading across his face now. “You look incredible.”

“I’m going to take a picture right now and send it to Barry,” Artemis says, whipping her phone out of her pocket. “He’d love it.”

“Oh, no don’t you—” Wally turns to Artemis as the flash goes off. She gets a good laugh out of it before hitting send.

“Mm, gotta love your super fast reflexes,” Artemis replies, which leaves Wally facepalming.

And while Bart starts zipping around admiring the new Flash suit Wally’s wearing, Dick is just way too busy admiring _Wally_. There’s just something about the colour red that just works for him. It brings out the edge in him, and by the glint in Wally’s eyes, Dick can tell that he’s feeling like a whole new person in it too. Dick knows what a new identity can feel like, what it can do to a person.

“Alrightie, so what’s the job for me tonight?” Wally asks Dick. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed you checking me out for the past five minutes.”

Dick’s face flushes completely, and he notices everyone else sniggering in the background. “Right. Wally, you’ll be on the streets tonight, updates on the whole city. You can cover the most areas in the least amount of time. Any developments on the Chemo attacks, the status of the police force, you radio in to us. Be on the lookout for attacks on citizens, too. Hasn’t happened yet, but it might soon.”

“Okay. So patrol duty, then.” Wally folds his arms as he gives him a sly smile.

“It’s a highly important job as you will be right in the centre of the city, and our main source of intel for developments. Also, the safety of the citizens will primarily be in your hands and we can’t risk—”

Wally speeds over to him and pulls his forehead in towards him until they’re both touching. He drops his voice and says, “I got it, Dick. Trust me.”

He feels Wally tentatively leaning into his face, but Dick has never been overly comfortable with public displays of affection. He brushes his nose against Wally’s cheek instead, pressing against the warmth. He feels his breath hitch, and he's so close to kissing him and it's just moments like this that makes it feel so surreal, sometimes. Having Wally's skin against his, being able to feel him in his hands, his presence. It's something he's taken for granted before, but being apart has really helped him appreciate all of this for what it is. They linger on each other for a few more moments, and it takes Artemis coughing for them to finally snap out of it.

“If you two are going to kiss, might as well do it now,” she says, rolling her eyes. “I’ll get the bikes out of the shed.”

Tim’s eyes dart towards her. “Bikes? I thought I saw Batgirl’s plane parked on the roof?”

Artemis chuckles as she walks away, slinging her quiver over her shoulder. “Oh, that plane will need _many_ repairs until it gets back up in the air. Nightwing can take care of it.”

Tim lets out a long groan as he walks off with Bart, who’s patting him on the back reassuringly. He’s frantically texting Babs now, trying to convince her that he isn’t liable for any damages to her plane, and _no_ , just because he was the one who went after Dick doesn’t mean that he’s responsible for the mess he leaves behind. Well, he _could_ technically fix it, but doesn’t mean he’s obliged to waste a couple of hours of his time by doing so. Bruce could probably just buy her another plane, anyway. It’s all good. Everything’s good.

“Everything good?” Dick asks Wally, who’s still standing in front of him holding both of his hands. He smiles at him as he feels Wally’s fingers stroking his palms. “You seem nervous.”

“I’m not— I mean, I kinda am. It’s my first mission in a while,” Wally admits, and Dick can see the hesitation in his eyes. “And the last time…”

“You saved the world, Walls,” Dick says. “Doesn’t get any better than that.”

“I just don’t wanna screw this up for you. I know this city means a lot to you, and it’s a plan three years in the making. I really wanna do some good here, and—” 

“You will, Walls. Don’t sweat it,” Dick says, squeezing his hands. He tries to keep them firm, but loving. “You excited to be back out there?”

Wally smiles in response. “Abso-fucking-lutely.”

Dick likes what he’s seeing, and all of a sudden, it’s back. The thrill, the gleam of danger, the fire in their eyes. “Then let’s get out of here.”

Tim and Bart take their own jet to head to the riverside compound, Artemis and Dick head down to central with their bikes while Wally zooms straight into town. He races past Dick in a flash of red, suit and lightning. Dick’s forgotten how this looked, mesmerizing red streaks weaving through the city grid in between street lights in a single blink. He wishes he had the aerial view right now. If there’s anyone who could light up an entire town on the edge of demise, it’s Wally.

“Robin, Kid Flash—status report,” Dick says through the comm, following Artemis’ lead as she takes a sharp turn down an alleyway. The entire city is silent, every crack and roar from their engine sends an echoing ripple several blocks out.

“Robin here, we’ve got eyes on the site. Ready for the drop in five,” Tim replies. 

“Doesn’t look like much from the outside, seems just as dead as the rest of the city,” Bart adds. “The power doesn’t even look like it’s running.”

“It might appear that way, but stay on high alert. Call for backup if anything happens,” Dick warns them. Another sharp turn, rocky pavements and narrower streets. He’s left it to Artemis to decide the point of infiltration, but on second thought he should have probably cross-checked the maps with her. She’s been on this case for almost as long as he has, though, so he trusts her.

“And by backup I’m assuming you mean me?” Wally asks, the sound of wind and light static buzzing through his comm.

“Yes. Flash, how’s it looking over there?” Dick asks, hoping for a better reply.

“Uh, it’s practically a ghost town around here. Found a few unconscious cops on the streets, and everyone else seems to be indoors. Don’t know what’s going on behind all those windows, Nightwing, but it’s not looking good.”

Damn it. Not even close. “There were still civilians on the streets when Artemis and I were in the police precinct.”

“We were only in the warehouse for about two hours,” Artemis says. “How could they have spread it so fast?”

“Wally, try to see what’s going on through the windows. If it looks bad, take a blood sample and cross-match it with the blood samples from the police force. We need to make sure they haven’t been hit with a different formula or the antidote wouldn’t work on them,” Dick says.

“Copy that, Nightwing. Just to be clear, you want me to trespass, no warrant, and steal some blood samples from a bunch of families?” Wally asks, and Dick can practically hear him smirking through the comm. “Police training sure did you well.”

“Best role model in the family!” Tim chimes in, until Bart coughs. “Right, the drop. Gotta jump, Kid Flash and Robin, out.”

“Well, I _am_ technically still on permanent suspension, so what’s the worst that could happen?”

“You really need to stop saying that,” Wally laughs, out of breath as he comes to a halt. “Alright, there’s a house in the corner of a block with the television on. I’ll take a look.”

“Good luck,” Dick says, and at the same time Artemis pulls over right in the middle of an intersection.

“We’re here,” she says. They take their helmets off and Dick pulls up the maps on his wrist computer. Artemis grabs him by the arm and opens the hatch to the sewers. “No time for that, we’ve got to get moving. I know the way.”

They jump into the sewer and slowly make their way down to the central waste site. It’s common knowledge to security forces and superheroes, that the underground sewers had always been a point of trade for villains in the city. Besides, if they’re dealing with toxic chemical monsters, then this isn’t a bad place to grow them. If enough walls and pipes are broken, then leaks to the main water and gas channels could take down the entire city in one night.

If anything happens, if _anything_ happens to the team, he isn’t sure if he’d be able to rebuild his emotional strength. He got lucky with Wally coming back, maybe too lucky, but he isn’t going to let that happen again. No way he’s going to end up scrambling on the floor, trying to pick up pieces of himself again. Even after all this time, why is it still so hard to feel whole? 

And Wally. Wally who’s been through so much, gone through hell and back for Dick, deserves so much more than someone who isn’t even sure about what he’s doing with his life. Wally’s always seemed to have that, that sense of purpose that drives him, keeps him moving forward day in and day out. Dick’s always been the opposite. Missions are one thing, to be completed and then it’s on to the next one— but living is another thing entirely. The past never seems to be able to let go of him. Every time he takes a step forward, it comes and drags him back to where he started. The all-consuming fear, the relentless anxiety, the guilt— they don’t go away. They fester in the shadows and snatch him back when he steps into the sun.

If this mission goes right. If it goes right, and they make it and no one gets hurt, then maybe he’ll be able to move on. Start fresh. In his mind, there’s nothing better than the sound of a clean slate. They’ve never really had that, him and Wally. It’s always been two much history, two much of each other inside the other’s skin. Dick’s sense of humour echoed in Wally’s laughs, and Wally’s sense of compassion had seeped into Dick’s skin. He cared about people, wanted them in his life, valued their presence and the importance of building a family. Losing Wally just freaked him out, emotionally. It made him feel vulnerable in a way that he had never felt before.

Dick has always had a tendency towards detaching when things get overwhelming. It’s a habit he’s mostly tried to curb, but he’s sunk back into it in the past three years. He can’t afford to do that anymore, not when he’s come so far in reconnecting with everyone.

“Nightwing!” Artemis whispers. “Nightwing! I said, you take right and I’ll take left. You got that?”

They’ve hit a wall at the end of the tunnel, with two more openings on each side. Dick tries to check his maps, but the blueprints show no record of there being diverging paths. It’s meant to be a dead end. Definitely a sign of suspicious activity, and Artemis is right. It’s best to check it out separately.

“Meet you back here in ten?” Dick says, setting the timer on his watch. “If either of us aren’t back, radio in immediately.”

“Your city, your rules,” Artemis says as she preps her arrow. “See any sign of Desmond, let me know. I’ve got unfinished business with him.”

Dick nods as they both head their separate ways. It’s still relatively quiet underground, so he decides to check in with Wally overhead.

“Hey Flash, any updates on the citizens?” Dick asks, trudging through murky waters and trying to keep his wrist light steady in front of him.

The comm beeps. “Yeah, they’re all home alright. Not exactly… conscious, I would say. But I did take some blood samples and you’re right, they’ve been hit with the similar type of gas as the police.”

“Similar?” Dick asks, and he realizes he’s said that way too loudly in a way too quiet environment.

“Yeah… I ran traces of the good ‘ol cobra venom on both the samples, and they were present in the police samples, but not these ones. They’ve only been hit with the component that turns them immobile. Gonna take a wild guess that they’re going to wake up absolutely brain-dead, leaving them subject to the control of…" 

“The police,” Dick says. “And with the force being under Desmond’s control, the entire city will be under siege.”

“Yeah,” Wally says, a sense of resignation in his voice. “Glad you got out of that gig fast. Hey, if we save the city, will you be reinstated as a cop?”

Dick hears the faint sound of running water close by, whirring engines and light splashing. It’s still too dark to see, so he ramps up his light and delves further inside.

“Uh… I’m not sure, really. Haven’t really thought about what happens after this,” he says, taking tentative steps through the tunnel.

“Weeeell, I was thinking…” Wally says, and the tone of his voice is enough to get Dick curious. “I know it’s been a tough three years, for me and you, and everyone else really. But this isn’t about them, it’s about us, and I thought that maybe we deserve a little bit of time off from all of this.”

Dick feels himself blush. “Are you serious?” 

“Yes! I mean, think of how fun it’ll be. We could go to places without having to worry about getting killed, and think of all the good _food_ we could eat, maybe you could even check out a couple of travelling ciruses and say hello to your old man Haly?”

“That sounds nice,” Dick smiles as he takes a break from moving. He spends a moment trying to picture it, just the two of them, out there in the world together. It's not something he's ever thought about, not really, but he finds himself latching onto the fantasy quickly. “How long are we talking?”

Wally chuckles on the other end of the line. “Slow down, there. We haven’t even left yet, so keen to get back out there and save the world. But it’s really up to you though. A month? Maybe a couple, even a year would be fine by me. I just… really want to make the most of my time with you now, Dick.”

Dick doesn’t know what he’s ever done to deserve Wally, but he’ll happily take it. He hears splashing noises coming closer towards him, and tries to look back but suddenly his comm is knocked out of his ear when he gets a punch in the jaw. He grits his teeth, trying to ignore the throbbing muscles in his cheek.

“Dick? You there?” Wally’s voice comes crackling through the speakers, slowly sinking into the waters.

He feels the impact of not one, not two, but three set of fists coming in to hit him. One of them has him by the wrist, crushing his light and leaving the entire place pitch black. He doesn’t have time to turn on his night vision, and tries to fend them off with a couple of kicks and elbows to the stomach. He manages to strike a pretty good blow with one of them, but the other one catches him by his other wrist, both arms now locked into death grips.

There’s nothing stopping him from lifting the two of them and kicking them both in the face, but even that’s not enough to loosen their grip on him. They don’t even stumble at that, and Dick was going at full force. This isn’t going very well. The third man comes back, this time he puts a bag over his head. His arms are now tied up behind him, he struggles to move until a solid punch to the face knocks him out completely before he even has the chance to figure out what's going on.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it guys, last chapter! I'm considering doing a short epilogue after this - possibly attached to this or in a separate fic, but there are no concrete plans yet so for now this is complete! 
> 
> I just want to say thank you again for everyone who's been reading/following and all the encouraging comments you've left, it means the world to me! I had such a hard time writing this last chapter because I didn't want it to end! Hope you guys enjoy it though :) xx

_“Got a minute?” Wally asked, leaning by Dick’s door, hair still dripping with sweat as he takes off his mask._

_Dick stayed behind his computer, still working on writing up the details of the mission. Standard protocol. He wasn’t going to suddenly change that. Batman’s taught him the importance of discipline, routine— and he was right to. It’s the only thing keeping him sane and grounded. The world could be spinning backwards for all he cared but as long as he stuck to the plan, did his job the way it needed to be done, then it wouldn’t even bother him in the slightest._

_“Okay. Busy then,” Wally huffed, turning around._

_“Wait—” Dick said, fingers suddenly lifted from the keyboard. He doesn’t move from behind the computer. “Is it important?”_

_“Kinda,” Wally replied, taking a deep breath before opening his mouth again. “Actually, yeah. It is.”_

_They hadn’t been speaking for a week. Part of it was because they’d been on missions at separate ends of the country, part of it was because— well, just because. Orders for radio silence would’ve been a good excuse, but when you have a telepath as a friend or, alternatively, the most secure communication network in the world right inside the computer in your wrist, nothing really was a good excuse._

_“Dick, I don’t think I can do this anymore,” Wally said, as he now stood in front of him. Dick peeled off his mask slowly. He knew this was coming._

Dick feels droplets of water dripping onto his face. The air around him feels humid but his cheeks still feel cool. It almost makes the bruising in his jaw bearable— almost. His head is throbbing, he can barely lift open an eyelid and he has no idea where he is apart from the fact that he’s still down in the sewers.

His arms are cuffed to a pipe behind him. He nearly laughs at that. Desmond’s henchmen might have known how to deliver a knockout punch, but they sure as hell didn’t know how to do much else. That’s the thing with Cobra venom, it gets you strong, but not very smart. He bites off the glove on his right hand gets to work on picking the lock. A jolt of pain surges through his wirst as he tries to bend it. Nothing worse than bad guys pulling a number on your body even after they’ve knocked you out. It’s like a sick game of how much damage they could do without breaking the other guy. Unfortunately, this time, he was the other guy.

But he was also Dick Grayson, made of pure, raw talent and a penchant for doing incredible stunts. He’s always exceeded expectations, broken records, reached feats that no one has even come close to and there was never a limit to what was enough. Managing expectations has never been his strong suit, because growing up the words ‘good enough’ were never said unless prefaced with a _not_.

_“I just don’t think this is working. Whatever I do, I don’t know— it just feels like it’s never good enough for you.” Wally was trying to explain, in the best way possible, all the stuff that made Dick a shitty boyfriend. They were sitting face-to-face on the edge of Dick’s bed, and there wasn’t a lack of tears either._

_“That’s not true, Wally, are you talking about when you tripped the security on that last mission? Because I’m over that, I totally am.” Dick tried his best to reassure him. “I have a handle on things now. Don’t sweat the small stuff and all that, we all make mistakes.”_

_Wally shook his head. “It’s not that. I mean, it partly was but what about the next time I mess up? The next time you blow up at me for risking my life? Or the next time you stonewall me for an entire week because I wasn’t comfortable with being in the same squadron as you? Yeah, I wasn’t exactly loving the week-long silent treatment back there.”_

_“You were the one who didn’t want to work with me—”_

_“Because I didn’t want to screw up your plans again! Because I was scared,” Wally spelled it out word for word. “I was scared how one mistake on the field that would affect us in here. How me being forgetful about setting alarms turned into me not caring about you and you just not caring at all. And you said so yourself, we can’t have our relationship interfering with team business. Well, it kinda is now.”_

_Dick couldn’t refute that. Even his emotions weren’t enough to deny the logic, the obvious of the obvious. “Okay, so we’re breaking up.”_

_“I really wish we didn’t have to,” Wally murmured._

_“Me too,” Dick said, shifting closer towards Wally. “You’re perfect, and I’m sorry for being a…”_

_“Think we’ve overused that one a little bit,” Wally chuckled, placing a hand on top of Dick’s. He squeezed it gently, and leaned for a quick peck on the lips. He didn’t quite pull away as fast though, and in a moment of impulse, of greed and of desperation maybe, Dick went in for another kiss._

_It was difficult to stop when they started. What was supposed to be a simple conversation turned into a drawn-out discussion for days. It was Wally who pressed for it to end. He had been talking to Artemis for advice throughout the whole process, and for some reason Dick felt betrayed by that. They had been best friends once. He was the one Wally used to talk to when he needed help. Maybe that’s what it took for Dick to realize that he was better off as anything other than a boyfriend when it came to being in Wally’s life. It made things easier when they finally ended it._

Of course, things haven’t been exactly _easy_ since, but they were getting better. For starters, Dick’s managed to get himself out of the cuffs and starts trying to get communications back up.

“Tigress? Do you copy?” Dick says, following the sound of whirring engines in the tunnel. The humidity in the tunnels had to be coming from some form of chemical production, there’s no way things could get this warm underground. 

The comm cracks. “Nightwing! Jesus, where the hell were you?” Artemis breathes in what sounds like a sigh of relief.

“How long was I out?” Dick asks, moving as quickly as he can. He stops when he hears more of Desmond’s henchmen shuffling around behind the next corner. He isn’t planning on getting caught again.

“’Bout an hour,” Artemis says. “Don’t worry. I called backup.”

“Walls with you?” Dick lights up.

“Yeah, but there’s no way in hell I’m putting him back on the line after what just happened. Get your head on straight, Nightwing,” Artemis says.

“Right,” Dick says. “Is he with you? I’ve found the production site for the chemo-blots. I’ll send you my location.”

“We’re kind of standing on the production site at the moment,” Artemis lowers her voice as a rustling noise is heard in the background. “Not for chemo-blots though. Just the poison gas.”

Dick peeks in from the corner and sees a giant machine steaming with gas in the centre of the site. The tunnels go deeper at that point, there’s a stretched out dip in the centre where the machine is fitted beneath. He wonders how they’ve managed to keep this hidden under the watch of the Blüdhaven police force all this time. But then again, with Desmond in charge, they probably didn’t need to hide all that much.

“Are you guys down there?” Dick asks. It’s still too risky to make a move – the place is crawling with henchmen. How the hell did those two sneak all the way there?

On second thought, super speed might have played a part in this.

“We’re inside the machine. Wally’s trying to shut down the power source without flooding the chemicals. It’s built in with a lot of safety features and if anything goes wrong we’ll be choking on more of that poisonous gas. Not fun.” Artemis replies, then says to the background, “I don’t have to be encouraging, I just have to tell him the _facts_.”

“Okay, well you better do it fast or we’ll get caught soon enough,” Dick says. There’s a small part of him that’s relieved that they’re not dealing with chemo-blots at the moment, because his body is far from being in prime condition. Of course, they risk gassing up the entire city again, which would probably be worse than taking a few chemical spills on his outfit.

“Need my help for anything?” Dick asks, just to make sure. He’s itching to offer help on solving the tech problem, but if Wally’s already on it then he’s not going to get in the way

“Actually… we could use a distraction for when the power goes out.” Oh. Not what he had in mind, but he could get with the program.

He spends a couple of minute scanning the area. Six men circling the top level, a couple more below, but they don’t matter. He won’t be much good in hand-to-hand combat in this state, and he checks his supplies. Two smoke balls, four Batarangs, and a grappling hook. He waits for the cue, and soon the lights start flickering on and off. Time to go.

He runs up to the site, drawing the attention of the guards. He keeps an eye on Artemis and Wally crawling out of the backdoor of the machine and waits until they’ve gained enough distance to throw his smoke balls out. Two of the henchmen get close enough to almost grab his shoulders again, and oh, they’re getting the Batarangs. He dodges them, leaning back left and right as quick as he can before throwing them straight into them.

Dick manages to run as fast as he can out of the area, using his grappling hook to pull himself up and out of there. He’s counting on Wally’s speed to get the two of them out there. They had gone in opposite directions, there’s no way of actually telling if they made it out of there until they meet up on the streets. Here’s to hoping.

He manages to crawl out of the sewer and before he can even stand up straight, he feels a sharp breeze flying towards him and flashes of bright yellow lightning in his line of vision.

“You’re okay,” Wally says, breathless and already all over him, hands wrapped around his neck with barely any space between them. He doesn’t even bother with small talk, or classic Wally quips, and just kisses Dick like he’s never kissed him before.

“One way to put it,” Dick squirms out of Wally’s embrace, shoulders still stinging with pain. “Holiday planning took a dark turn.”

“So that’s a yes from you?” Wally laughs.

Dick smiles. “A year. I was going to say a year.” He watches Wally light up at that, and really, not much has changed over the years. He was still _perfect_.

If he could give his younger self a little bit of advice right now, it would be to stop pushing away the people who matter most in your life. It’s scary, yes, having someone you’d hate to lose, but it’s still not an excuse to treat relationships like ticking time bombs about to explode at any moment. A year with Wally will be good for him, good for the both of them.

Wally could spend some time catching up on the things he’s missed out on, integrating and all that. (To be fair, Dick could use a little bit of that too.) Dick could learn to take things slow, live life one day at a time and all that.

For now though, time was a luxury they couldn’t afford to be wasting. “We’ve got seventeen hours. What’s the situation with Robin and KF?”

“Desmond’s there,” Artemis says. “Tim’s got him under surveillance. He’s not making a move yet but he seemed pretty pissed off when he found out we hit their underground supply.”

“What’s he up to?” Dick asks.

“Not sure,” Artemis replies. “We can find out, though.” She smiles, and nods to their motorbikes parked at the corner of the street. Wally adjusts his mask, the lack of goggles still takes a bit of getting used to, and gives them a little salute as he races across the city.

“Race you there?” Dick turns around to look at Artemis, who’s already hopping onto her bike several feet away.

“Way ahead of you!” she replies, driving off with a grin of satisfaction on her face. He really needs to work on not getting distracted so easily these days.

It takes them about twenty minutes to reach the riverside chemical factory, and once they get there Tim and Bart seem to already have a handle on the situation. They’e shut down the production of the chemo-blots, and discovered that Desmond was planning to send out shipments of the poison out via the river channel. The recipients were a long list of criminals in different cities around the world – especially cities that were notorious of having a track record of being particularly crime-ridden.

There were just two more ships they haven’t stopped, and Wally gets right on it. Dick and Artemis find Desmond trying to escape, and to keep things short, he quickly realizes that he’s landed himself in a difficult situation.

They hear the blasts of ships going off in the background and watch the flames spark in the sky through the window. Wally’s probably got a smile on his face right now. Tim and Bart finish mass producing the antidote in the next couple of hours, and not wanting to risk mixing chemicals in the water supply – it becomes the speedsters’ job to deliver them throughout the entire city when daybreak comes along. Tim’s built them compact evaporator machines to move things along a little bit quicker. Manually injecting antidotes to every single citizen in the city wouldn’t exactly be the most efficient thing.

"Think we did a pretty good job here tonight," Artemis says, smug satisfaction on her face as they all reconvene in the warehouse, Desmond tied to a chair with a gag in his mouth. 

"Way ahead of schedule too!" Bart says, as they all watch the sun come up by the harbourside. The view of the glimmering river gives them a sense of calm that they haven't felt in a while. It feels good to be here, with each other, Dick thinks. Days like this don't come often, and he wants it to last.

-

In the end, their post-mission business wraps up pretty quickly. They spend another couple days in Blüdhaven after the attack to help the city recover and assess the damages done. Dick informs the police about the underground production site, and they offer for him to be reinstated as a cop there but he politely declines. It’s good to know that the offer’s still open for if ever he decides to come back.

Artemis doesn’t spend much time hanging around before setting off. Her and Wally spend a bit of time catching up before she drags Desmond to wherever her base of operations is. Wally’s the one to send her off, along with Bart who seemed reluctant in letting go of his suffocating hug. In the years Wally’s been gone, Bart and Artemis have kept in contact, maintaining a very brother-sister type relationship. If there’s one thing Bart values more than anything, it’s family, and that’s what Artemis has become to him. 

Dick starts packing up to head back to Mount Justice, and walks past Tim in his room skyping Conner. Conner’s shirtless and wrapped up in sheets on the screen, and Tim’s cracking up at a joke he’s just told. He walks past Bart in the kitchen, talking to Jaime on the phone at the speed of light. He doesn’t know how Jaime picks up on all of this, even Wally has a hard time understanding Bart’s speed-talking. Dick smiles to himself and walks into his shared room with Wally. 

“All ready to go?” Dick asks, as Wally presses the button on the Flash ring and watches it suck in the entire suit.

“That never stops being cool,” Wally laughs in disbelief. “But yeah, I’m all set. You know, I don’t know if stopping by Mount Justice is a good idea for us.”

“For us or for you?” Dick lifts an eyebrow and walks up behind him, hands sliding down from his neck to his shoulders. 

“Okay, for me,” Wally admits. “I don’t know, I feel like if I see everyone again I wouldn’t want to leave. And before you say it, I really, really want to go away with you. So it’s not me having second guesses about that.”

“I get that,” Dick says, resting his chin on Wally’s shoulder. “Well, we don’t have to stop by if you don’t want to. Hey, also— perks of not being in the speedforce, we’ve got mobile phones and the internet. Who says we can’t talk to them while we’re away?”

Wally takes a deep breath and leans his head to the side, resting on Dick’s. “You’re right. So we’re leaving now then?”

“Whenever you’re ready,” Dick replies. “Also, I’m pretty sure we’ll bump into a couple of people during the course of the year. God knows Tim and Babs will be hovering over our heads whenever they get the chance.”

“M’gann’s going to want to hang out when she gets a day off,” Wally says.

“You could get her to bake you a cake for your birthday when it rolls along,” Dick says, hands wrapped tightly around Wally’s waist.

“Pfft. I’d get her to bake me at least _ten_ ,” Wally says, placing his hands on Dick’s. “Could I make a request for our first stop though?”

“Anywhere you want,” Dick says, kissing his neck playfully. He keeps going until Wally starts giggling, cheeks turning red. He’s always been the more ticklish one of the two, and it’s extremely adorable.

Wally tugs on Dick and pulls him into the bed, and the two of them end up rolling around the mattress, bumping their heads against the wall and each other and at one point Dick gets elbowed right in the jaw—which, considering recent events, was slightly more painful than expected.

Dick eventually curls up next to Wally, legs stretched out on his lap and arms wrapped around his neck as they’re leaning against the back of the bed.

“Okay, so where’s our first stop?” Dick asks, smacking another kiss on Wally’s flushed cheek.

“My parents’ house,” Wally says, suddenly serious. “I miss them, and I need to see them before I go again.”

Dick unwraps his arms from Wally’s neck and sits up. “Of course, Walls. You definitely should. I should probably see Bruce too.”

“Haven’t seen the big man the past three years?” Wally asks, and Dick shakes his head in response. 

“Nope. Everyone’s yapping on about a reunion though, we have this… Bat group chat kind of thing.”

Wally’s eyes grow wide in amusement. “Of course you do. Dude, go ahead and see your family. You’ve actually been on this planet the past three years, I mean, it’s nice to have that option around.”

“Yeah,” Dick says, and normally he’d spiral into another guilty phase, but with Wally around it’s hard not to be optimistic about the future. “Wanna come with? They’d love to meet you.”

Wally seems stunned for a minute. “Wait, me? Meeting the bats? Do they even know that we’re…”

“Babs likes to gossip,” Dick sighs. “And so do the rest of them. But they’re really sweet, I promise! Except maybe Damian. Or Jason. He’s been around, but not really. Though I’m pretty sure he’d show up if I came home bringing a _boyfriend_ and—”

“Okay, slow down there, Mr. Popular,” Wally laughs, warm and endearing. “I’d be cool with that. Sign me up to see the Batcave! Will Bruce let me take a look around?”

“I will personally give you a tour if he refuses,” Dick says.

“Tour or not, you should see them,” Wally tells him. “Also, Tim and Bart would probably be less offended if we tell them we’re coming home for a bit before fucking off again.”

“Good point,” Dick says. He thinks about the prospect of spending an entire year with Wally again. In his mind, there’s nothing that could possibly be better. Sometimes he still can’t get over the fact that Wally’s actually back, like, for good. 

The past seems so far behind him now. Being with Wally, making plans for the future, their future, just makes everything seem so insignificant in comparison. The shadows that plagued him seem small in the face of the bright path they’re building ahead of them. The idea of looking back seems unappealing, useless even. There’s only the sweet taste of the present, and the excitement of days ahead. There's just one question left to ask.

“What are you thinking about?” Wally suddenly asks, and Dick realizes that he’s been lost in thought for longer than expected.

“Do you forgive me?” Dick asks, voice dropping a little. “For, you know, being a pretty shit boyfriend back then.”

Wally leans into him, trying to catch his gaze from under his face. “You’re kidding right? Dude, that was ages ago. Of course I’ve forgiven you. Is that what you’ve been hung up about all this time?” 

So maybe Artemis was right. She usually is. Suddenly, Dick’s getting flustered. “Yeah, kinda.”

“Wow, you really are serious,” Wally says. “Look at me. Hey, look at me. We didn’t have a perfect run as a couple, but that was like, what? Six months out of like, the ten years we’ve known each other? Man, do you remember any of the good stuff or do you just throw it all away in favour of beating yourself up? You really should stop doing that, for starters.” 

“I do remember the good stuff,” Dick says, finally breaking into a small smile because Wally’s looking at him like he’s the brightest star in the universe and if he can’t appreciate that type of positivity in his life then fuck it. This is what he’s wanted all this time. It’s right there sitting in front of him with freckles and red hair and radiating with the kind of energy he’s been missing for the past three years. Get a grip, or get moving, Dick Grayson.

“Okay, I get it,” Dick says, taking a deep breath. “All of that stuff, gone. Erased from history. Clean slate.”

“Woah there, everything? Even the mindblowing teenage years? Hormones running wild?” Wally jokes, and Dick jabs him in the rib. He starts giggling in response until Dick lays off him.

“Mm, let’s just blame everything on the hormones,” Dick hums, as Wally nods in response, biting his lip. Dick closes his eyes and leans back on the wall. “I like myself better when I’m with you, Wally.”

“It's _more_. I love you whether you’re with me or not,” Wally says as he climbs onto Dick’s lap, fingers on his temple while rubbing them in circles. Dick sighs contentedly, feeling Wally’s fingers moving through this hair, pressing gently against his scalp and he feels the tension disappearing from his body.

“You always beat me to it,” Dick says, leaning into Wally’s touch and relishing the weight of his body on him. “I was just going to tell you how much I love you, poetically and everything.”

“Between the two of us, who’s generally faster at doing things?” Wally asks, adjusting himself on Dick’s lap. He feels something underneath him, and shifts his hips forward, making a point to press against Dick’s as slowly as he can.

Dick’s breath hitches, eyes still closed as he licks his lips. “If you’re gonna be a tease for the rest of the year, then this won’t be very fun for me.”

“On the contrary, it’ll be so much fun,” Wally says, and for the first time tonight, Dick isn’t thinking about anything else. Not the past, not even the future, it’s just him and Wally.

It’s just the weight of Wally’s body settling onto his, his lips pressed gently against his. The sound of rain and thunder outside surround them, encapsulating their space, moving between their bodies and into their skin. Dick feels the crackle of lightning seeping through Wally’s body, feels the electricity jumping onto him when their chests pound against each other. An undercurrent of energy runs through them, and it feels binding. It feels like an outside force is linking them together, body and soul, and with Wally moving so naturally underneath him it can’t be a coincidence that they’re so in sync right now. He’s got the world spinning on his fingertips, all around him and there’s no way he’s ever letting go.


End file.
